Backgammon is the subject of a new series of works by New Yorker photographer Douglas Ljungkvist. He is not interested in documenting the backgammon match itself, thus in his photos you will not see the current position of the game, not the two players facing each other and nor the group of spectators surrounding them.
Typical backgammon photo from 2009 Monte Carlo championship
What you will get is a close look at the formal elements that assemble the backgammon game, tangible sense of the board’s material; nuanced glance at the players’ hands, as they roll the dice, move the checkers or record the score, and the appearance of the playing surface at the end of the game.
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backgammon photo by Douglas Ljungkvist© (as all the photos below)
How do backgammon players stack the checkers while bearing off?
"Photographing a backgammon match per se is visually not very interesting." Ljungkvist told Play65 blog. "Backgammon does, however, offer color combinations, texture and variety of surface materials. I am also interested in studying how a board looks after a match is over. How do people stack the checkers while bearing off? Sometimes chaotic patterns are created by hands at the end of a match by a player expressing his disgust at losing. The result is like the calm after the storm. Who is left standing, how and where?"
Eric Steiner’s old beat up backgammon board
Although Ljungkvist’s endeavors in backgammon photography are still at the beginning, his backgammon connection goes back to his childhood, through the vivacious Stockholm scene of the 1980s, and includes winning the Swedish Team Championships and a special heritage backgammon board.
"I started playing backgammon around the age of nine thanks to Swedish poker/backgammon player and gambling legend, Eric Steiner", he recalls, "We visited Marbella, Spain from Sweden often and became friends with Eric, staying at Eric’s beach house on a vacation. At night, Eric would go out to play high stakes money games with rich but not so good players in the upscale Puerto Banus marina. I remember vividly that Eric’s favorite opening move was a 6-1."
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"My first backgammon board was one that Eric gave to me during one of those visits. It was a large but pretty beat up board that I used for the next ten years or so playing mostly against my sister and mom. Some years later we had moved from Gothenburg to Stockholm and I learned there was a backgammon scene with tournaments and weekly league games. People would make fun of my beat up old board until I told them who had given it to me. I wish I still had that board. I eventually invested in a Dal Negro board that I purchased in Rome, Italy and still use to this day."
Swedish backgammon days
"In Stockholm my interest in backgammon grew and I attended tournaments regularly and played in a weekly league with ten teams each in two divisions. Though I would play the Swedish Open and some other tournaments around Scandinavia, I was never a star player. I was on the team that won the Swedish Team Championships that, the weakest among formidable players like Robert Lindbom, Johan Moazed, and Ulf Ring. My biggest contribution to the team was probably when I clinched the deciding semi-final and final matches to claim the championships in the late 80’s. The legendary two time World Champion Jorgen Granstedt was on the very first league team that I played on.
Backgammon and Ping Pong
Ljungkvist interest in backgammon started fading upon his move to New York in 1990, and came alive again in recent times, while working on his ping pong project, "partly a formalist still life study of space, design, color, space, and form. I realized there were certain visual similarities between backgammon and ping pong that interested me, the limited boarded playing surfaces, colors, space, and shapes; the rectangular board, triangular pips, round checkers, and square dice."
"The backgammon board does not have enough scale to make the venue or combination of the board and its environment interesting in the same way a ping pong table can do in the urban landscape or in an interesting inside venue. Backgammon offers more color combinations, texture, and variety of surface materials compared to ping pong."
Backgammon future plans and alternative rule
"Once I complete my ping pong project I hope to find more time to photograph backgammon, both on locations where people gather and play, as well as creating conceptual scenes in my studio. I might explore some tightly composed player portraits during matches representing various states of emotion; the poker face, disappointment, exhilaration, disgust, fear, intimidation, counting, analyzing, and more."
"I’m excited to play backgammon again. I definitely have as a goal to play the World Backgammon Championships in Monaco at some point. Backgammon is a good fit for my personality. It is faster than chess and good for someone who likes variety and can get bored easily. I am a feel player evaluating situations more by position, experience, and objectives than equity or pip counts. This is probably also my biggest weakness. Generally, I am a better match than money game player. Now, if only I could get in from the bar on two and three point boards. My dream is that they would change the rules so that each player would roll for the other."
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