Mark Sommerfeld

United States

Series: Mad Honey

During the first week of April each year The Masters golf tournament draws approximately 40,000 spectators to the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Augusta is home to roughly 600,000 people and an unemployment rate thirty-five percent above the national average. With more than 300 churches and one of the most exclusive country clubs in the world, The Masters inadvertently shines a light on the city’s complex relationship with religion and sport. Both are no stranger to spectacle as they lap up the riches of ritual and often deliver impressive feats of human will. Created during the 82nd Masters golf tournament in 2018, Mad Honey offers a glimpse into this opulent and storied tournament while drawing attention to the event’s devious Cheshire cat-like grin. Photographs of manicured lawns, pristine laneways and jubilant onlookers are combined with imagery depicting problematic, coded, and sometimes sinister displays of wealth, religion, sport and power. Altogether, Mad Honey grapples with the conflicting reality of The Masters and a consideration of the divide between intention and consequence shared by sport and religion.