Black+White Photography - UK (2019-12)

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B+W

SECTION 1: THEMES TO CONSIDER

You don’t need to be a football fan to enjoy the spectacle of a Saturday afternoon and you don’t even have to buy a ticket if you want

to shoot the pre-match atmosphere. There’s plenty of stories that you can explore in the build-up and aftermath of the event.

Check out forthcoming fixtures at your local club and consider some or all of the following.

If you fancy shooting a wild and unpredictable event, look no further

than your local football team. Tim Daly walks you up to the ground.

timdaly.com All images © Tim Daly

TRIBAL GATHERING

A good tactic to try is to hijack other people’s photographs. Many of

the bigger clubs have signposted Photo Opportunity points around

the ground for fans, especially from overseas, who’ve made a special

once in a lifetime pilgrimage. There’s often a lot of interaction going

on in these particular spaces, as fans take their turn to make selfies

or have group photos taken by their companions. If you can use a

wideangle at these opportunities you can cram a lot of information into

your frame. In this example, I’ve spotted a crossover between two sets

of fans posing for their pictures. Keep your focus on the main subject

and let other shapes and elements enter the frame at the edges.

M

ost of the photographs we see from football

matches are action shots of the game, yet

for football fans these rarely convey the

atmosphere or evoke memories of attending

the actual match. Despite the many positive

changes to the football supporter experience

over the last 10 years, a Saturday afternoon spent at your local

ground can still be a pretty febrile occasion. For the lifetime

football supporter, the local club is the last embodiment of a

past, which has long since disappeared and as such, provides

the focus for both collective and personal memories. For the

fan, the home match is a chance to suspend reality for a few

hours each week and feel a sense of belonging: by wearing club

colours, singing the club anthems and, of course, talk nonstop

football-related nonsense with other fans. For the photographer,

the football match is a unique opportunity to observe unmediated

tribal behavior in all its glory. Rather than shoot action on the

pitch, we’re going to document the build-up and fan behaviour

before, during and after the match. For this project, we’re going

to consider different themes and techniques that you can try out.

1 TRIBAL COLOURS

Most fans wear a team scarf at the very least, while others dress in

replica kit or vintage football shirts. Outside the ground, see if you can

spot fans who are wearing their hearts on their sleeve, so to speak.

Keep your eyes peeled for those spontaneous bursts of song in the

pre-match walk-up to the ground. There’ll be fervour and anticipation

on show, pride in wearing the team colours alongside an all round lack

of self-consciousness. See if you can capture some of this spontaneity

by getting close to the fans and reacting when the moment arrives, like

this example shows. You’ll be surprised how invisible you become and

its much less confrontational than shooting any other kind of event.

2 OTHER PEOPLE’S PHOTOGRAPHS

2

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE

‘I came from the outside, the rules of photography didn’t interest me. There were things

you could do with a camera that you couldn’t do with any other medium: grain, contrast,

blur, cock-eyed framing, eliminating or exaggerating grey tones and so on.’

William Klein

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TECHNIQUE

PROJECTS

IN VISUAL

STYLE