A lifelong Forest fan, Bristow chose the ideal season to catalogue their fortunes, although it all looked far from rosy as the season began with a run of defeats that saw manager Chris Hughton faced with the Forest axe.
In came Cooper, though, and Forest were immediately revitalised, their first win finally coming mid October after a torrid first few games that saw them languishing 24th and in need of a miracle.
It made for a brilliant adventure that Bristow shared with his fellow Forest fans, as well as through his OurGloriousBanners Instagram account that provided the perfect platform.
A marketing and creative consultant by profession, Bristow has always had a keen interest in photography, inspired by his father, a lifelong employee of Kodak.
Says Bristow: “I’ve been a Forest fan since about the age of 6 or 7. My family had moved up to Nottingham just before I was born and despite my dad being an Arsenal fan I chose to support who my mates followed, so Forest it was.
“At the time Forest were the better team so it was an easy decision – Arsenal have probably had the better of the following 35 years though to be fair!”
Stuart Pearce was his idol. You still get tingles when you see him on the TV today. What a man. and the first game he remembers attending was the 1989 League Cup Final and a 3-1 victory over Luton.
“I have no memory of getting to Wembley,” he said, “but I do remember being on Wembley Way where my dad bought me a huge rosette and one of the legendary (if you’re a Forest fan) inflatable trees.
“My mum threw it away a few years later as it had a puncture, I’ve never forgiven her.”
Fast forward 30 years and Bristow embarked on his mission to photograph Forest’s season from start to finish, and what a glorious finish it was.
“For various reasons, I was looking for something a bit different from my experience following Forest in the summer of 2019,” he said. “Being a creative type person I was drawn towards doing something around the match day experience. There were already great blogs and fan zines and I’d never be anywhere near as talented as the Forest designers so I thought taking photos could be my thing.
“I think the biggest obstacle to doing this was that I’d never really used a proper camera before, so getting used to the dials, aperture, exposure etc took a little while. “I remember in particular getting back from my first night game and being confused as to why everything was so dark. But I quickly got up to speed.
“My go to is a Fuji XT30 but on special occasions I like to go old school and use a Canon AE1 to do some film stuff as well. If I trusted myself more I’d do more on film but I’d be in a constant state of anxiety that the film would come back blank!”
“It’s a truly unique thing, being a football fan, and unless you are one I don’t think it’s possible to understand just how special it is.”
Simon Bristow
SoccerBible was an early inspiration. “I loved the fan focussed photo case studies they produced, they always felt so real and they had a great tone to them,” he explained.
“Since then I’ve found so many great accounts to follow on Instagram in particular – the likes of Jonny Silcock, Football35mm, pitch.side, FloodlightsOn and paulina.ftbl.
“There are so many amazing professional football photographers – and I’ll give a specific mention to Ritchie Sumpter, the Forest club photographer, who is incredibly talented – but their focus, quite rightly, is the action on the pitch.
“What I wanted to do is tell a different story of a match day, the one that happens in the stands (or in the pub before the game). You can write a great match report or blog but no words can ever capture what it’s like in the stands when you score a last minute winner, or the tension before a penalty is taken, or the heartbreak when you concede.” A photo can and that’s what I’ve been so interested in whilst doing OGB, OurGloriousBanners.”
“Stuart Pearce – I idolised him as a kid, just as pretty much every man, woman and child in Nottingham did at the time. You still get tingles when you see him on the TV today. What a man.”
Simon Bristow
“The funny thing is, we really don’t care about Leicester, all we care about is Derby. I’d wager a fair amount of Forest fans were even cheering Leicester on when they won the Premier League. Before kick-off a tiny bed sheet banner was unfurled in the Leicester end declaring ‘The East Midlands is our Kingdom’, by full time Forest had embarrassed the FA Cup holders to follow on from a(nother) win over Derby two weeks earlier. Safe to say there’s only one King around here, the Reds.” Copyright: Simon Bristow
Bristow is happy to share some tips for any would be photographers out there.
“Buy a fixed lens camera,” he says, “as clubs / stewards only really seem to have an issue if it’s a zoom lens.
“Be extra careful at Bournemouth as their stewards seem to think cameras are weapons (I was genuinely accused of carrying an offensive weapon during a bag search there this season!).”
His best advice? “Take way more photos than you think you’ll need!”
“You can write a great match report or blog but no words can ever capture what it’s like in the stands when you score a last minute winner, or the tension before a penalty is taken, or the heartbreak when you concede.”
Simon Bristow
Now following promotion Bristow is relishing the thought of a new season with the big big guns.
“The future of OGB is trips to Old Trafford, Anfield and all the rest. To say I’m excited would be an understatement.”
It’s a journey that has clearly brought great joy to himself, his fellow Forest fans and his many Instagram followers.
“I’ve never had one complaint,” he said, “despite the photos not always being the most flattering, and it’s really quite lovely when people come up to me in the pub and ask if I’m ‘that Glorious Banners guy’.
“So thanks. I’m glad people are enjoying my little hobby.”
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