AROUND THE FLOODLIT GROUNDS
I think I'm attracted to floodlit football grounds a bit like a moth is attracted to an artificial light. Like the moth, I circle them rather than head directly to them. In my case it's to try and find the right view for taking a picture that captures the unique ambience of the surrounding area. I can't comment for the moth.
The sight of a floodlit football ground lighting up the surrounding streets at night - like a beacon drawing you in - is something that excites me every time. Even if it's Bognor Regis Reserves on a wet Thursday night it doesn't matter. Wet nights are more interesting visually as the light bounces around off puddles and glistening tarmac. As photographers, we love to see the way that light falls on our subjects. A non-descript suburban cul-de-sac or a nearby farmer's field can be transformed - lit up like Hollywood film sets - by the beams of artificial light spilling over from the local football ground. That's why I enjoy photographing small local league grounds so much. Within 10 minutes of the ref blowing the final whistle, the lights go off one by one and everything is non-descript again (and quite dark). Every Tuesday or Wednesday night I get on a train after work to go and photograph a different ground. Each one offers a slightly different challenge. Sometimes the picture jumps out at you like outside little Sidley United's Glovers Lane ground near Hastings. I only had about 10 minutes to get a picture after getting completely lost. I was wiping away tears of frustration and then joy as I took that one. Tottenham's White Hart Lane however, is proving to be a tough nut to crack. It might be quite atmospheric inside but from the outside it's just a high walled enclosed block that doesn't cast any light onto the streets outside. I'm hoping it'll be 4th time lucky this season like it was at non-league Lewes.
The other challenges involved in taking these pictures usually come from bored teenagers on very small bikes (outside local league grounds) and bored police officers sat waiting outside in police vans (bigger league grounds). The teenagers just want their pictures taken so I pretend to be foreign and the police want to know if I'm a terrorist so I just say I'm an Evertonian. On the whole though, photographing the grounds from outside whilst the match is going on inside is mostly an enjoyable and slightly strange experience. I like guessing the score of the match from the outside. You get to recognise that a sweary roar followed by two short cheers and one big cheer means that the homer referee's given a penalty, the defender's been sent off and the penalty tucked away by the home side. While I was photographing Arsenal's old ground Highbury from the adjacent Elwood Street I counted five houses with the game being shown on Sky TV in the front rooms. Perhaps this signifies that the local fans that the club was traditionally based on are being priced out of going to top-end football matches. I contrast this with the great L.S. Lowry's 'Going to the Match' painting from 1953, depicting crowds streaming into Bolton's Burnden Park ground on foot from the surrounding terraced streets. But that's another project for another day.
Thanks for looking at my pictures.
Ian Hughes (September 2009)
Sidley United
L S Lowry
Arsenal