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Football fans in lockdown captured by well-known photographer for new project

:Headline: Football fans in lockdown captured by well-known photographer for new project:
Stuart Roy Clarke worked with Premier League broadcaster Amazon Prime Video on the new project.
Sports Mole

A photographer best known for capturing football crowds has turned his focus onto fans in lockdown for a new project.

Stuart Roy Clarke, who has been chronicling the relationship between the sport and those who love it since 1989 through a series of exhibitions and books, worked with Amazon Prime Video on a new Homes of Football project in late 2020.

Clarke, with the help of some fellow photographers, spent six weeks going into the homes of fans of Premier League clubs as they watched matches being broadcast by Amazon, capturing the quirks of following a team when going to grounds was off limits due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Stuart Roy Clarke at the launch of the new Homes of Football exhibition at the National Football Museum (Dave Thompson/PA)

The collection is now part of a new outdoor exhibition at the National Football Museum in Manchester, which reopened on May 27.

"Every picture just comes at you as you walk past," Clarke said.

"There's a lot beckoning you. This isn't just for football supporters. If you are an absolute football fanatic, you would like these pictures, but if you have never been to a game, I think you might still enjoy them."

Among the beauties of Clarke's work at stadiums before the global public health crisis are the small details and reactions you might miss on first glance. But he insists even in someone's living room, there was plenty of golden material to work with.

"We didn't do any reconnaissance, we didn't go to the house like maybe Gogglebox and plan it and light it," he said.

With less than 10 minutes to play, the Drucquer family are sent into raptures as Harvey Barnes rifles home an equaliser against Crystal Palace on December 28, 2020 (Handout from Stuart Roy Clarke and Amazon Prime Video/PA)

"I quickly have to just look around as I would at a football match and think 'we've got the family, that's the fan. And then we've got the house, and oh there's a dog or a cat – now they could come into play'.

"One guy's got a Subbuteo table. Take the Lake District family, where the daughter is doing handstands and gymnastics, because she wasn't bothered about football but she was excited about life. Someone else, a farming family, has a picture of a buffalo on their wall."

Clarke began his professional work against the backdrop of the Hillsborough disaster and the Taylor Report which followed it, and captured the transition away from perimeter fencing to all-seater venues.

The pandemic has arguably had the greatest impact on the match-going fan since the foundation of the Football League in 1888. Clarke pointed out that even during World War Two, football continued and spectators were still able to attend friendly matches.

Since the reopening of venues on May 17, Clarke has already been out to observe and record the reactions of supporters as they return, albeit in small numbers.

"People were crying," he said.

"And it wasn't crocodile tears, silly tears, these were genuine. I overheard people saying 'I didn't think I was going to get to come again'.

"You could take that several ways. Was football going to die somehow? Were crowds never going to be allowed back in? And a few people might be thinking 'I know people who have been casualties of Covid, and it could have been me'.

"We all respect the opportunity to be returning to a football match. I'm not saying people didn't respect it before, but it was kind of what you did. Now, it's 'we're the chosen ones'. With the example of Leeds (when they played West Brom on the last day of the season), they had 10,000 there and they could have had 10 times that.

"I'm not the only photographer who takes pictures of crowds. But that's peculiarly what I've done for 30 years, I've put the crowds first and the game second and not the other way around."

The Homes Of Football exhibition will run until June 12.

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Premier League Table
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool108111961325
2Manchester CityMan City1072121111023
3Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest10541147719
4Chelsea105322012818
5Arsenal105321711618
6Aston Villa105321715218
7Tottenham HotspurSpurs1051422111116
8Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton104421714316
9Fulham104331413115
10Bournemouth104331312115
11Newcastle UnitedNewcastle104331010015
12Brentford104151920-113
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd10334912-312
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham103251319-611
15Leicester CityLeicester102441418-410
16Everton102351017-79
17Crystal Palace10145813-57
18Ipswich TownIpswich100551021-115
19Southampton10118719-124
20Wolverhampton WanderersWolves100371427-133
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