The View from the Stands at Super Bowl XLVIII

We sent Lauren Lancaster to MetLife Stadium, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to photograph the spirit of the crowd at Super Bowl XLVIII. What was expected to be a close game quickly became a romp: the Seattle Seahawks got a safety just twelve seconds in and carried the game straight through to the end. As Caitlin Kelly described it in her post-game report from the stadium, “It was like the air had been sucked from the stadium. Peyton made faces; receivers dropped balls and then dropped to their knees, suspended in disbelief.” Lancaster’s photographs capture the transformation of a crowd united in optimism into one divided between anguish and elation.[#image: /photos/59096dc92179605b11ad72de] Read more of our coverage of the Super Bowl.

Photographs by Lauren Lancaster.