



1 / 13 Chevron Chevron Photograph by Mark Davis The starter fires his gun at the hundred-and-twenty-first annual Penn Relays in Philadelphia. April 24, 2015.

There is a deceptive quality to many of the photographs of the runner Edward Cheserek that have been published online and in magazines. The University of Oregon long-distance star’s petite, wiry frame seems incongruous with his brawny kick; a largeness looms over his five-foot-six body. Here is Cheserek dashing across a finish line. Here he is: his thin, angular arms raised, fingers pointed, signalling victory before cheering fans. Here he is smiling atop a podium with his teammates at the Penn Relays, rejoicing after winning a distance medley.

Cheserek, a native of Kenya, is a member of the Marakwet tribe, part of the Kalenjin ethnic group in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley known for its strong running pedigree. Since coming to the United States, in 2010, he has won eight N.C.A.A. titles and numerous high-school accolades, including being named the 2013 Gatorade National Cross-Country Runner of Year. Now a junior at Oregon, and widely considered one of the most promising young runners in the world, he has applied for American citizenship with the hopes of being eligible to compete on the next U.S. Olympic team.

Influenced by his own amateur track endeavors, the photographer Mark Davis began taking pictures of Cheserek in 2012, during the runner’s senior year at St. Benedict’s Prep, an all-boys academy in Newark, New Jersey. In the years since, Davis has since followed Cheserek to meets across the country, capturing his power and speed, but also homing in on the quieter moments of the runner’s career. In one shot, Cheserek giddily enjoys a ride on the bus; in another, he observes the day’s events from the bleachers. He savors time spent without track spikes, the air whisking between his gnarled toes.

Shot in black-and-white, Davis’s images seem to subdue the excitement of the rollicking crowds, exploring the relationship between a runner’s solitude and the energy on the periphery. “I’m trying to make pictures that are less about running,” Davis told me. “Because there is a lot of sports photography that’s about the big moment.”