It’s was the pure emotion, joy and despair that had Hull City fan David Jones gripped by football.

During his time following the Tigers he’s witnessed relegation, promotion, an FA Cup final and seen his team locked out of their stadium.

As a creative, it was only natural that he wanted to find his own unique way to document matchdays following his boyhood team. He wanted to offer his followers a more realistic view of what a typical matchday looked like, an alternative to what the clubs social media account tends to portray – a theme that seems to run throughout the work of so many football fan photographers.

Shooting on film, the analogue approach gave David just that – something he enjoys doing and working on to improve, taking inspiration from some of the other great football on film accounts that are out there.

Hs picture take in Hull City matches at the MKM stadium, England fans at Old Trafford and a football trip away in Italy. Enjoy.

Lower Block: Tell us a bit about yourself, where are you from, who do you support and what do you do?

David Jones: I’m a Freelance Digital Designer from Hull. After working in different cities throughout my career I moved back before covid. I love the city. I support the mighty tigers, Hull City. I’ve supported them since 1999.

LB: Who were your footballing idols growing up?

DJ: Initially my football idols were Michael Owen and David Beckham due to their popularity in the media and what they were doing for England. In terms of a local idol, it was Stuart Green who played for Hull City. He was a great flair player who scored some great goals and produced some stunning assists.

The first big name I saw live would have to be Nick Barmby when he played for Hull. Previously playing in the Premier League he dropped down to us in League One and was outstanding and was one of the main reasons we got promoted in his first season with us (2004-05 season).

LB: Can you remember your first match?

DJ: I’d nagged my father for a while to take me to see Hull City and in the end we attended a game vs Hartlepool at Boothferry Park in 2002. The first half we dominated them and Ryan Williams grabbed a deserved goal quite early on. The second half was a different story and they equalised bang on the 90th minute from what I remember. Typical Hull City.

LB: What drew you towards football as a fan?

DJ: I found the atmosphere and the connection with family and friends something that drew me to it. All puling together in hope of getting a positive result and seeing how much joy it can bring to people is something that always gets me. Supporting Hull City, I’ve seen the lows of being relegated, locked out of the stadium, the name change saga and so on, but also the joys of an FA Cup final run, promotions at Wembley, some of the best talent we’ll ever have come through our youth team and so much more.

LB: Tell me a bit about this project, how did it come about? What was your inspiration for it?

DJ: I’ve always had an interest in photography but over the last year or so I’ve found myself getting into film photography a lot more. I’d noticed a few Instagram pages that specialised in film photography at sports matches. I’d seen some UK based accounts for large scale clubs like @UndiscoveredNUFC, @FloodlightsOn, @DuffyHarriet to name a few and then @Sounders_On_Film from across the pond.

I’ve attended Hull City for years now and thought that nobody seems to cover Hull City in the same sense that the above accounts do, so I combined my two main hobbies into a project. Purely out of enjoyment for the club I’ve always supported, it enables a different way of broadcasting the club more from a fans point of view.

LB: How did you get into photography?

DJ: My mother gave me multiple throw-away cameras when I was little so it had always been a passion for me. Throughout my education I’d done art based courses and did photography when I attended college. Learning about film developing and other aspects of film photography had me really intrigued.

LB: Any influences?

DJ: As mentioned above with the listed Instagram accounts but another I’d say inspired me from a sports photography point of view is @Giacomo_Cosua. All of his work is so well detailed and captures the shot exactly at the correct point.

Part of the interest came from putting a different spin on the photography that is usually seen on club social media accounts. They take photographs at games, outside the ground etc but a lot of what I’ve found football to be about is the pre/post match pint with friends, taking your children to their first match and subjects like that. I definitely need to explore fan photography more and in the upcoming season I’ll be hoping to showcase this more.

LB: Do you have a favourite photograph that you have taken from this series?

DJ: Yeah. One of my first photographs from starting the account was of a steward overlooking the pitch before the ground started to fill up. Me and my father got there early to make sure we found our seat and to get a pre match pint. I’d seen this steward overlooking the pitch and the lighting seemed to work really well.

LB: What makes photographing football culture such a fascinating subject?

DJ: I think the pure emotion you get from the sport is what fascinates me. There can be such joy in the subject you’re taking photographs of but also despair. It’s definitely something I want to document more for the upcoming season.

I love the surge in recent years with football culture and fashion. You see more and more people wearing club colours, training wear and memorabilia as day-to-day fashion instead of just on a matchday. It’s something that allows photography for Instagram pages like mine and others to flourish as you can have a subject matter in a location that you might not usually expect it to be in. In future I’d like to focus on some film photography that showcases football culture with fashion influences throughout. It might be something I could look into with the new Kappa range that Hull City have brought out being very pleasing on the eye.

LB: Where can people keep up with your projects?

DJ: Throughout the season you’ll find me posting on Instagram and Twitter under the name of @HullCityOnFilm. I also showcase my own photography on my personal Instagram account @DaveyJayyy.

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