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.