“My aim was to capture as diverse a range of people as possible (age, gender and race), so I was really pleased when a member of Red Star Harehills responded to my callstating, that as a Muslim football team they would love to take part in the project. (Sport for Sports Sake) The fact that there are so few footballers of Asian decent plying their trade professionally, despite a thriving amateur asian league was of particular interest to me, having Jamaican father and growing up in an era when the only visible black footballer was Clyde Best of West Ham.
The day I made the photograph was suitably Grey cold and damp. I took a few team shots then some individual ones but when Tony stepped up I knew I had to make it work. His posture and the way he wore his kit was a nod to images of sportsmen from a bygone era. WG Grace springs to mind. The Name Red Star plus the Kebab shop shirt sponsor , the Cross of St George of his track suit bottoms, the tower block in the background all converge. I did struggle with the composition positioning the block of flats to the left and then to the right but settled on what, at the time seemed rather unconventional central position behind the subjects head. This gives the picture a certain dynamic containing all the relevant information in a tight area in the centre of the picture to make this one to the most pleasing photographs I have taken.” – Paul Floyd Blake
Gallery and social platform
