After experiencing an eerie emptiness when he visited Forest’s City Ground during Covid restrictions, Alex Mather widened his horizons to take in as many clubs as possible, but not necessarily on match days.

“My current photography project was inspired during lockdown,” he said.

“I created a photo book of life in Nottingham which showcased emptiness in a normally bustling city. This was going to include photos of my team, Nottingham Forest’s stadium.

“I loved the almost apocalyptic aesthetic of these photos.”

Rather than include them in his general gallery of lockdown life in Nottingham, Mather decided to repeat the exercise in towns and cities across the country, wherever his work as a mobile caterer took him.

“In the past when I’d visited The City Ground it was a hive of activity and atmosphere so the contrast of it suddenly being completely silent and empty had an eerie feel to it. 

“I continued this project throughout lockdown visiting other grounds around the Midlands and as lockdowns began to ease I tied it in with my job, visiting local grounds in whichever areas I was working. 

“Once fans were allowed to return and things became more normal I carried on capturing the same sort of eerie aesthetic to my photos and kept up the apocalyptic, behind the scenes, sense. 

“Most photos people see of stadiums are from within the grounds on match days or stadium tours, but this project is from a slightly different perspective, one you wouldn’t usually expect from a football stadium – emptiness and stillness.”

A lifelong Forest fan, his devotion was severely tested in the first game he went to… an 8-1 defeat by Manchester United in the 1998–99 season, the largest away win in the history of the Premier League until Leicester City’s 9–0 victory at Southampton 20 years later. Now the good times are back and he was at Wembley for the play off final that saw Forest clinch promotion back into the Premier League.

“I first got into photography about seven years ago,” he said. “I invested a lot of money into equipment and lenses but I got tired of having to lag a bag full of heavy equipment all the time so I simplified things and started shooting film on one of my grandad’s old Ricoh cameras. 

“I really enjoyed it. Shooting on this for a couple of months made me realise I could simplify my equipment and still enjoy it and take just as good (if not better) photos.

“I settled on a Fujifilm x100v which has been an absolute work horse for me and I’ve well and truly fallen in love with it.”

This latest project has lead him to see football grounds in a different light.

“Football fans see their home stadiums in a certain way and often overlook certain aspects to them” he said.

“I try to capture not just the glamorous side that you expect to see on TV or social media but the council estates the stadiums dwarf and the scrapyards attached to the back of them.”

Mather has been developing his photographic art as he has been going along.

“The best advice I can give is to enjoy the process of taking photos,” he says.

“Learn how to shoot manually even if you don’t use manual all the time but it will give you a better understanding of your camera and what works with it and just be confident with it. 

“Try not to overcomplicate things and overspend on equipment, and also have an idea of the type of shots you’re aiming to get and don’t just wing it and shoot anything and everything. 

“Once you get the opportunity to get the shot you want just take it straight away, whether that means ducking or jumping or climbing on something (all safely of course) then just do it. 

“You’ll never regret it once you have the photo to look at afterwards. I think as well it’s important to enjoy hard copies of your own work and get some printed off and displayed at home, don’t just keep them all digitally.”

Prints of Alex’s photography are available to buy online here and you can keep up to date with his photo series on Instagram.