Football is all about stories that matter for football travel enthusiast Hugo Saye.
Captivated by world football’s biggest derbies, fascinated by the spirit of ultras, and inspired by the unique moments and stories that contribute to the culture of football, Saye’s adventure has no final destination, but the brilliant photographs from his journey serve to remind us all who we are, and what we love.
“Tell me how you play and I’ll tell you who you are”
Eduardo Galeano
Saye spends whatever spare time he can muster up, backpacking around the world with his camera in pursuit of his goal – to witness as many fiery football derbies as he can.
Gripped by the atmosphere, passion and stories behind the rivalries – Saye was never going to be satisfied simply ticking off grounds around the world. To make it worth his while, it had to be the big ones… the clashes that bring out the best (and worst) in loyal supporters.
From Jerusalem to Rome and Belgrade to Buenos Aires, Saye’s commitment knows no borders – and he has no plans of stopping anytime soon…
“When the day to day results and routines fall away as the years pass, what’s left are the figures who continue to resonate, and their great stories. Of course it’s about last weekend’s results, but what really matters crosses borders and lingers for generations.”
Hugo Saye
Lower Block: Let’s start with where you’re actually from…
Hugo Saye: I’m from the depths of rural England but am currently working my way through South America with a backpack. I’m a primary school teacher on a career break, swapping small children for ultras!
LB: Who’s your team?
HS: I support Arsenal. I grew up in a football black hole with no teams particularly nearby and Arsenal were the first team I knew thanks to my older brothers. I was a fairly odd five year old watching my brother’s videos of the Arsenal 89/90 season review and England at Italia 90 over and over.
HS: My first real idol was Ian Wright, and he’s still one of the very best people in football today. Swindon Town were the nearest team to where I grew up so during their one season in the Premier League we managed to see their game against Arsenal when Kevin Campbell scored a hat trick but still somehow got overshadowed by Wright scoring from near the halfway line.
HS: My teenage years were all about the greatest of them all, Thierry Henry. Probably the best player who ever has or ever will wear the red and white. The way he could just seemingly decide to rip through a defence as and when he felt like it was almost unique.
LB: Tell us a bit about your work in general and this project…
HS: It’s probably fair to say the focus of my work is quite broad and indistinct. Essentially, I set out with a football bucket list and went about ticking it off. I wanted to see the biggest, best and most spectacular football experiences in the world and take my camera into them. Ideally these are the big derby games, but sometimes the fixture list just doesn’t help me out and it’s not logistically possible, so I’ll find the next best thing. Once I’m there I won’t be taking any pictures of the game itself but I’ll focus on the crowd to see who is doing what. I try to combine photogenic, aesthetic shots with pictures that pick out details, emotions and stories.
LB: Do you have a favourite photograph from this series?
HS: It seems to change a lot, but I keep coming back to a picture of a single Olympiacos fan circling red pyro around himself in the darkness. Special mentions also go to one of silhouetted members of Hajduk Split’s Torcida as fans leave the stadium beneath them, more pyro at the Belgrade derby and a floating balloon in the smoke at Boca.
Hugo Saye
“I wanted to see the biggest, best and most spectacular football experiences in the world. I try to combine photogenic, aesthetic shots with pictures that pick out details, emotions and stories.”
LB: What kit do you use?
HS: I use a Nikon Z50 mirrorless camera with a couple of lenses up to 250mm. In South America, though, I don’t usually take it because it generally wouldn’t be allowed in and for personal safety I’d just rather not carry it around, so I use an old Samsung point and shoot that goes in my pocket but still has a decent zoom. I also use my phone at times too, especially in crowds, because it’s less invasive and just easier.
LB: What drew you towards football as a fan and connected you to football as a culture?
HS: Originally it was just fun to watch, but I very quickly developed an emotional response to what I watched on those videos I watched as a child that went way deeper than my actual understanding of the game at such a young age. From then on nothing else got a look in except for a few months in the summer when I also played cricket. But it wasn’t until I got older and started reading books by people like Simon Kuper, Pete Davies, David Winner, James Montague, David Goldblatt and others that I started to think beyond the immediate surroundings of following my team and looked at it more globally and historically. From then on I saw football as being about stories – when the day to day results and routines fall away as the years pass, what’s left are the figures who continue to resonate, and their great stories. Of course it’s about last weekend’s results, but what really matters crosses borders and lingers for generations.
Hugo Saye
“Open a travel magazine and it’ll have articles about art galleries, architects, cocktail bar scenes, music. All manner of things, but never football, and I find that really weird. Football is people.”
LB: How did you get into photography?
HS: I’ve always been interested in it, ever since I was a handed down my first camera when I was young. My dad was very keen on photography, so it was him who first pointed me in that direction. After he laid the seeds, it was only really as an adult that I started to think more seriously about it and really try to work on it in any meaningful way.
LB: Who do you take creative influence from?
HS: I think there’s a lot of really great football culture photographers around at the moment. Danny Last stands out as someone who’s really pushing it into mainstream areas online with some excellent work. From him I’ve learned that matchday photography doesn’t always need to be inside the stadium. Dave Shields at Stadium Photography does some really nice stuff, especially inside empty grounds, and Stuart Roy Clarke has some really evocative shots, and I love how people like Mike Bayly mix football and landscape. Overall I think I go with the style that comes naturally to me, but I look to these others to expand upon and improve what I notice and do.
LB: Can you remember the first match you photographed?
HS: The first game was the Belgrade derby last year, and it remains probably my favourite set of images from any one match because both the Grobari and the Delije were just spectacular. I was lucky to get accreditation in Israel and loved being pitchside at both Maccabi Haifa and Beitar Jerusalem, it gives a totally different perspective on the stands.
Hugo Saye
“You can see so much more about a community from its football scene than from any painting, urban regeneration project or trendy cocktail menu. It matters.”
LB: For you, what makes photographing football as a culture such a fascinating subject?
HS: Firstly it’s the unpredictability. You can’t plan shots because you have no idea who is going to do what, you just have to show up and keep your eyes open. If something interesting happens, you may only have a few moments to get your camera on it before it’s gone.
HS: There’s also a great range of options with it. You can have huge crowd shots, big spectacular pyro shots or you can really focus in on tiny details that tell you something about a fan, club or stadium. I keep coming back to football as stories but they’re everywhere. Every fan, every stadium, even a pile of rubbish on the stadium steps can have a story to tell. The presence of all those things, big and small, tied in to football’s extreme emotions, makes it such a great subject.
HS: I think football is a really great thing to be involved with while travelling, and it’s incredibly unrepresented in the media. Open a travel magazine and it’ll have articles about art galleries, architects, cocktail bar scenes, music. All manner of things, but never football, and I find that really weird. Football is people. My blog ‘Who We Are’ is named from the famous Eduardo Galeano quote, ‘Tell me how you play and I’ll tell you who you are.’ No cultural phenomenon draws in more of a population than football. You can see so much more about a community from its football scene than from any painting, urban regeneration project or trendy cocktail menu. It matters.
You can keep up with Hugo’s football travel photographs and stories via his ‘Who We Are’ blog and by following him on Twitter and Instagram.
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