30 17 August 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
When Harry Met...
The WAGs
Harry Borden looks back at an unusual shoot featuring
a support group for footballers’ wives and girlfriends
Harry says the Guardian Weekend magazine wanted the pictures to have integrity and not be crass or cheesy
ALL PICTURES © HARRY BORDEN
T
he reality of life
for footballers’
wives can be very
diff erent from the
stereotyped image we often
see in the media. I found this
out for myself in 2005, when I
photographed former England
goalkeeper David James. While
he was being interviewed, I
chatted to his wife, who had
been brought up on the same
estate as him. When she
married him, at the peak of his
career, she had suddenly found
herself living in a big house
with high walls. I remember it
was quite poignant when she
told me about how isolated she
felt, and that she didn’t feel she
was part of a community any
more. So in January this year,
when I was given a commission
by the Guardian Weekend
magazine to shoot the images
for an article on footballers’
wives and girlfriends, I already
had some idea of the unusual
problems they faced.
The story, by journalist Anna
Kessel, was about a group of
footballers’ partners who had
got together to form a support
group, which had grown
to around 400 members.
Although wealthy, the women
had all experienced the
downside of their situation:
problems ranged fromloneliness to dealing with their
partner’s life-changing injuries
or gambling addiction.
Footballers’ careers are short
and don’t prepare them for
life afterwards. I learned, for
instance, that 33% of players
get divorced within a year of
retirement, while 40% are
declared bankrupt fi ve years
after their career ends.
The seven women I
photographed included
Leanne Brown, wife of former
Manchester United defender
Wes Brown, and the shoot
took place at their home in
Cheshire. It was a huge barn
of a house, around 11,000ft^2 ,
with a full-size snooker table
and an empty, rather unloved
swimming pool. I think
Leanne and Wes were in the
process of selling the house.I was asked to do the job
because it was partly to do
with celebrity, but also because
a certain amount of sensitivity
was required; they wanted the
pictures to have integrity and
not be crass or cheesy. The
job felt like a convergence
of the celebrity portraits I’ve
done professionally over the
years and my personal work
with ordinary people with
interesting stories to tell.
The WAGs, however, were
really pleased as they knew
I’d photographed the Spice
Girls a few times – a group that
includes the uber-footballer’s
wife, Victoria Beckham.
So although the pictures had
to be quite documentary in
style, these women were clearly
used to looking glamorous and‘Isolated against
the fog, it captured
the bond that had
developed between
the women’