A sports photographer’s dream shot:

Chunks of mud splatter onto a face twisted in concentration; limbs scatter in all directions as the body contorts in a frozen moment of action that seems to mock gravity. Perhaps a few drops of perspiration fly from the forehead, and wisps of sweat-soaked hair join the body’s movement towards impact…

…and most importantly, the subject is a celebrity athlete, preferably the star player with a big contract from the NFL, the NBA, the MLB…

Or a more likely sports photographer’s dream shot:

A sports celebrity wearing plain clothes engages in a naughty act. Perhaps he’s tangled in a fight or cheating on a spouse. The news networks will shell out some big bucks for this shot.

I know that I’m not alone when I say that I’m tired of seeing sports photography used as a channel for mass-media gossip. Can’t we do better?

Indeed, we can. In fact, there’s a global community already working to change the way we play; their goal is to use sports to address our most pressing social issues. But in order to fuel a changing attitude about sports, we need to document our accomplishments and show exactly what we want to see. We want athletes who run for charity, soccer programs for underprivileged youth, rowers who cross the ocean to raise money for clean drinking water, and adaptive sports programs for differently-abled children and adults. And that’s where we could really use a new model for sports photography.

The sport-for-good community isn’t using cameras to display celebrity lives and high-profile action shots; this community is much more interested in documenting how we can use sports as an agent for social change. Young people, photographers, athletes, and activists are coming together to show how they “sport for good.”

For the next seven weeks, a youth-based activist web space known as YouthNoise Play City is hosting a photo competition that asks “What do you play for?” The entries are pouring in-each submission fulfills another athlete’s need to share her or his story. Through their photographic documentation, these artist-athletes are showing the world how they use sports to affect constructive change in their local and global communities.

It’s about time we take our sports media coverage back from the world of marketing strategy and celebrity hype, and start snapping shots of young athletes who are changing the world through sports and play.