As odd as it may seem, one of the earliest forms of football art I came to love and be inspired by were some of L.S Lowry's paintings/drawings. I remember looking at some of his work in school during art and being fascinated by them. Below is 'Going to the match', I remember getting a postcard of this piece and having it propped up on my desk. It always reminds me of going to games myself, that pre-match excitement which I think he managed to convey in the piece and particularly with the general buzz of the crowds. The way in which their legs are drawn seems to show that they're moving quickly, excited to get inside and to see the game.
The painter had an interest in sports and seemed to have a passion for football with several others too. Something I like about his paintings or drawings is his focus on crowds and fans, as though that is as much what interested him as the game itself.
The painting below, for example, is showing fans buying from a ticket tout and is centred around the team he supported, Manchester City. His depiction of the game shows more than just actual play, focusing on the people not playing the game and in this case, one of the less attractive aspects of the sport. While I'm not going to be painting or drawing myself, it is interesting to see a different kind of approach to it and to see how another fan has taken on showing the game and getting across that passion.
The idea I've decided to develop is one that I've long thought about making a project around and it makes sense because it's about one of my biggest passions in life:- football. The idea is to explore what it is that people love about football. Why people spend so much time and money on it and why we get so emotionally invested in a team and even in individual players. I want to do this using a mixture of photographs, both documentary style and also portraits and incorporate texts using an introduction to it and to go with the portraits, shorts pieces written by the people in the picture on why they love it.
To try and get my idea across more easily, I wrote what I'd put and show to someone before letting them see any of the images. I suppose it works as both an introduction and a sort of project proposal and since my initial idea is to present the work as a book, it would go at the start.
"Trying to explain to someone who isn’t interested in football that it’s not just a game is like trying to communicate in a foreign tongue you don’t know; near impossible. For me, a love of football started at a young age. I suppose you could blame my Dad, he had been going since he was young and so I grew up watching football and seeing him go off to games. That said, it was actually me who asked to go to a game and not him suggesting it. In fact, he wanted to take me to our local club, Grimsby Town, but I was having none of it. He’s originally from Leicester, thus they are his team and I was insistent that I wanted to go to a Leicester game, not a Grimsby one. I think I was in love from the moment I set foot in the ground. It was against Chelsea and we lost, but I wanted to go back. It took just under twenty games before I even saw the team win but I was hooked despite the regular beatings the team received. That was almost thirteen years ago and I’ve not looked back since. Whether it was the atmosphere, seeing so many people in one place with a common interest and a shared love, the players who were treat like Gods or the game itself, I’ll never know, but I was hooked from the minute I laid eyes on Filbert Street.
The aim of this project is to look at what football means to the fans with a combination of text and imagery. Going to watch football and supporting a club is a lifestyle and often it’s in your blood as much as it is a choice to fall in love with a club. It’s something you find yourself doing crazy things for it. Getting up at 4am and spending over 6 hours on a train to get to an away game? This happens at least once a season, sometimes more depending where your club is based. The away days are usually some of the best days too! I’ve met some of my best friends through football and had some fantastic experiences. Feeling like you belong somewhere and fit in with a set of people who share the way you feel is something I wouldn’t swap for the world. A love of football runs deeper than you might think, some fans (me included) think nothing of spending two hours stood with no cover in the pouring rain to see their team, even if that means watching them lose the match in the last minute and an accompanied journey from hell on the way home afterwards.
So what keeps this love going and has you coming back for more? It’s the way you feel when you score a last minute goal or get an unexpected win that puts a smile on your face, one that lasts for the rest of the week. It’s even the way that one song or set of lyrics can remind you of a match and have you reliving those memories, good or bad. It’s about those Tuesday night games in December that you spend a lot of money on and shiver your way through, the people you meet and the sights you see. Words can’t convey it properly, but football is more than just a game, trust me.
Or maybe it’s the way that it hurts to lose a crucial game or get severely beaten by a local rival; although you’re angry and disappointed, you know you’re going to let the team break your heart again at some point and be ok with it. In fact, you’re going to be more than ok with it once the day has passed because you know they’ll make it up to you at some point and that high they take you to makes the pain and the losses fade away like the passing seasons."
I’m going to be asking fans from every league and of many clubs to tell me why they love football and their club and will show this in a book format along with portraits of some fans and also photos that sum up football. I’m going to be looking at stadiums that often range from being majestic pieces of architecture to the most basic of grounds in the middle of nowhere. I'll cover emotions, be it fans experiencing them, or players as well as the travelling, fans and the game itself.
One of the requirements of the summer project was to look at an exhibition and so I wanted to pick something relevant to one of the initial ideas I'd had of what I wanted to do for this project.
Stuart Clarke is a photographer who has spent most of his life making images of one of his passions - football. He was perfect to look at because it is one of my passions and one of the areas I was looking at taking a project. He's been taking photographs of football and everything surrounding it for 20 years now and has a permanent exhibition in Ambleside. I went there during the summer and so want to write a little about what I saw, what I liked and include a couple of images.
Something that instantly stood out to me from having seen his images previously, but more so for seeing them in person, was how much you can tell he loves the sport. His dedication to taking them implies them, but it is something he has been very successful at conveying in his works. It is quite obvious that it fascinates him, and I find something equally fascinating in every one of his images. Whether it's the ones from the 80s, those of classic football stadia that just don't exist in the same ways these days, or of modern times in football, there's something that every fan can relate to and that reminds you of days supporting your own team.
Even if football or sport in general isn't particularly interesting to you, there is no denying that his images are good and from a documentary point of view, they tell a story of how football has changed and developed. The collection is made of photographs that capture moments some fans will never forget and some that others wish they didn't remember.
For me, I stood there and could almost hear or feel the atmosphere in the crowd shots, or imagine how cold and bitter the weather must have been in shots from night games in the midst of winter. I didn't pick up a leaflet, but his website has some text and I particularly like his own views on this long time project. He says, "20 years ago I began The Homes of Football believing myself to have a mission in telling the changing face of football, post Hillsborough. I believed I was stood on the precipice of history, peculiarly privileged in my view, to witness a national institution in big trouble, reinventing itself. I never deserted that lamp, but the mission dimmed as the years rolled on. Then, ding, bang on this 20th anniversary there is (rather than a token anniversary) again a real sense of mission to start telling the story anew. Club after club is facing dereliction, given the global recession combined with over-reaching oneself. Even though the game is ever more popular in footfall and some of the foot-ball is the best ever served. It’s just the sums that don’t add up. Here’s to that national institution. Again."As someone interested and invested heavily in football, i found it all very inspirational and particularly to help me decide that I really would like to do a project exploring football. It's something I'm so passionate about and my best work always happens when I'm very interested in the subject I'm making it on. It's interesting to see how many other people he's influenced and ask anyone who even has a passing interest in both football and photography and it's almost a certainty that they'll know and love his work.Below are a couple of the images that particularly stood out to me, either from the exhibition or from the website of it:- http://www.homesoffootball.co.uk
Each of these images captures something to do with the game in a creative or beautiful way and it's an insight into a sport that many play and more love. Sometimes the images are elegant and well constructed and sometimes they are raw, full of emotion and taken more suddenly. But all are about that association with football and the things people do for it or experience at it.
This will be the blog for my third year project that will be us following an interest and completing a project that will run from now until the end of the year. It will feature my own ideas and work as well as relevant research and moments of inspiration.
Over the summer we were asked to look over our previous work and see what we were happy. The area I was probably happiest with was the ideas and the development from trying things and them not working or working better than expected and then the areas that led me to from there. I tried some new things and sometimes they didn't go so well, so I stepped back, looked at them and tried other things or different ways and it was nice to go through these processes and often, they led to the better areas of the work. I also tried some video and worked more with sound and I was pleased with the outcome as it was still new to me. I learnt more what could be achieved and what areas I needed to improve on.
The areas I felt needed to improve were the final pieces themselves and also the amount of work done. I felt that there were still areas to be explored and more work to be made that for various reasons, didn't and so the aim for this is to do lots more and to try and achieve exactly what I want for the final pieces.
The painter had an interest in sports and seemed to have a passion for football with several others too. Something I like about his paintings or drawings is his focus on crowds and fans, as though that is as much what interested him as the game itself.
The painting below, for example, is showing fans buying from a ticket tout and is centred around the team he supported, Manchester City. His depiction of the game shows more than just actual play, focusing on the people not playing the game and in this case, one of the less attractive aspects of the sport. While I'm not going to be painting or drawing myself, it is interesting to see a different kind of approach to it and to see how another fan has taken on showing the game and getting across that passion.
