Gold Rush brings together Jason Bell’s portraits of leading sportsmen and sportswomen, with attention directed away from the moment of competition. The project considers athletes as people encountered outside the performance by which they are usually recognised. Bell’s experience photographing public figures becomes a starting point for looking at a different kind of fame, one built around physical achievement and public expectation.

According to the publisher, the work involved ten months of travel across 32 countries. Seventy-five athletes appear in the book, among them Paula Radcliffe, Haile Gebrselassie, Ian Thorpe, Sebastian Coe and Fanny Blankers-Koen. The range includes figures from different sports and generations, allowing the volume to bring past and present achievements into a shared portrait project. The emphasis is on meeting these individuals rather than documenting a single tournament or season.

Bell describes wanting to see his subjects away from competition, as people whose exceptional abilities do not erase their ordinary humanity. That intention distinguishes the book’s premise from sports action photography. For the reader, it offers a way to consider the relationship between a familiar public identity and the person carrying it. The portraits invite attention to the individuals behind names that may otherwise be associated primarily with records, medals or televised events.

Published by Dewi Lewis in 2000, Gold Rush is a hardback with 184 pages and 90 colour plates, measuring 275 by 330 millimetres. The publisher records that it won the 2001 SPORTEL Prize for the Best Illustrated Sports Book. It belongs at the intersection of portrait photography and sporting culture, offering a broad encounter with athletes through the perspective of a photographer accustomed to working with well-known personalities.