The resurgence of film photography in women's football

At the UEFA Women’s Euros 2022 final, 25-year-old pho­tog­ra­ph­er Har­ri­et Duffy took her favourite image to date. Eng­land hadn’t seen a major tro­phy since 1966, but The Lioness­es were favourites and Wem­b­ley Sta­di­um was eager to erupt. In extra time, Chloe Kelly’s win­ning goal sent the coun­try into a fren­zy. Using an Olym­pus MJU with Fuji­film Supe­ria 200, Duffy was quick to cap­ture the moment one of her best friends turned around with her hands in the air and noth­ing but eupho­ria on her face. ​“That was one of the best months of my life,” Duffy remembers.

Duffy had just grad­u­at­ed from uni­ver­si­ty before cov­er­ing the month-long tour­na­ment, and the love she received from the pho­tos still touch­es her to this day. ​“Hav­ing peo­ple mes­sag­ing me say­ing they’re now going to the World Cup to immerse them­selves with dif­fer­ent nation­al­i­ties because of those images has been a high­light,” she says. ​“After all, it’s a glob­al game and the fans are what make it.”

Foot­ball has always been a game for the peo­ple. Whether it’s down the road at a grass­roots pitch bare­ly hold­ing itself togeth­er, or across the coun­try in a mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar sta­di­um, it’s a sport with deep ties to region­al and nation­al iden­ti­ty and a way of life for mil­lions across the globe. Despite the huge amount of mon­ey being made on the busi­ness end, the essence of the game still lies in the hearts of its fans. When it comes to cap­tur­ing the moment, then, it’s unsur­pris­ing that film pho­tog­ra­phy is start­ing to see a come­back – par­tic­u­lar­ly in women’s foot­ball in the UK.

Since sta­di­ums have a lim­it on the kinds of cam­eras fans can bring in, com­pact film cam­eras pro­vide the per­fect alter­na­tive for hob­by­ists want­i­ng to cap­ture their own mem­o­ries from the stands. Mean­while, in pro­fes­sion­al set­tings, most film pho­tog­ra­phy con­tent can be seen in inde­pen­dent foot­ball out­lets and Instagram.

As a grow­ing game, women’s foot­ball isn’t as main­stream as the men’s, and this per­haps allows more room for explo­ration. Clubs such as Arse­nal Women have picked up on the appeal of film pho­tog­ra­phy and used it as social media con­tent, giv­ing the play­ers dis­pos­able cam­eras to toy with. These pic­tures have been some of the most pop­u­lar amongst fans, as they show a more inti­mate side of the game. The light leaks, the blur­ri­ness, the grains are all part of the feel of film pho­tog­ra­phy, which cap­tures the moment with all its imper­fec­tions – and humanity.

Duffy’s own gate­way into pho­tog­ra­phy arrived when she stum­bled across her par­ents’ old Olym­pus Trip in the attic in 2014. The Tot­ten­ham sup­port­er has since gone on to become an ana­logue pho­tog­ra­ph­er for inde­pen­dent out­lets Copa90 and Indi­visa, which pro­vide pho­tog­ra­phers with a chance to be pitch-side with a film cam­era while more main­stream media tend to stick with high def­i­n­i­tion dig­i­tal photography.

“I think peo­ple are start­ing to push against that ​‘take a pic­ture or it didn’t hap­pen’ effect that social media has,” says Duffy, who believes that the resur­gence of film pho­tog­ra­phy is down to peo­ple try­ing to live in the moment. ​“There’s a need to not just post an image as you’re liv­ing that moment but reflect on some­thing that happened.”

Nos­tal­gia is anoth­er focal point; the pop­u­lar­i­ty of phys­i­cal media like vinyl records and fash­ion from the 90s and 00s has also sky­rock­et­ed in recent years for the same rea­son. Raiyan Rafiq, 25, who first picked up a film cam­era in 2016 and now shoots for Indi­visa, thinks roman­ti­cis­ing the past is part­ly what has pushed an entire­ly new gen­er­a­tion to pick the hob­by back up.

“I think dur­ing the pan­dem­ic we all went back to things that gave us com­fort, and there was a col­lec­tive real­i­sa­tion of want­i­ng to hold on to things,” she shares. ​“There’s no medi­um that cap­tures a moment quite like pho­tographs. Film has a nat­u­ral­ly nos­tal­gic feel and you also put a lit­tle more effort into cap­tur­ing what’s in front of you.”

Rafiq, who is good friends with Duffy but a rival fan by sup­port­ing Arse­nal, attrib­ut­es the val­ued gen­uine con­nec­tion between fans and the play­ers as a rea­son why women’s foot­ball fans enjoy film pho­tog­ra­phy. ​“Per­son­al­ly, I think the authen­tic­i­ty of film is a huge fac­tor,” she says. ​“It con­veys a sense of real­ism and hon­esty that can some­times be lack­ing in dig­i­tal photography.”

Women’s foot­ball has been on a sig­nif­i­cant rise in recent years. With a sport so fresh paired with a medi­um once stowed away in time for the new mil­len­ni­um, Rafiq finds the com­ing togeth­er of the old and the new inspir­ing: ​“On one hand you have film, which is a time­less and tra­di­tion­al medi­um. And on the oth­er hand, you have a mod­ern and dynam­ic age of women’s foot­ball. You can see that tra­di­tion­al meth­ods can con­tin­ue to evolve and inspire us in new and unex­pect­ed ways.”

Duffy echoes the sen­ti­ment. ​“It’s amaz­ing. I always get peo­ple say­ing how film can cap­ture a moment in time unlike any oth­er medi­um. I think it goes back to the nos­tal­gia thing. Film roman­ti­cis­es major moments well, allow­ing peo­ple to reflect more emotionally.”

Both Duffy and Rafiq may have set out to cap­ture those in the stands, but their pho­tos have even inspired more peo­ple to fill sta­di­ums. ​“Some­one said to me that they got into women’s foot­ball because of my images, and that they now active­ly go to games,” says Duffy. ​“I think that touched me the most, as expos­ing the game is one of the main rea­sons why I do it.”

At the heart of their pho­tos, ulti­mate­ly, is the fans. ​“The emo­tions that are pro­voked, the cel­e­bra­tions that come with it, the cre­ativ­i­ty of the signs, scarves, fash­ion – it’s a beau­ti­ful con­nec­tion,” Rafiq says, cred­it­ing the fans for mak­ing the sport as spe­cial as it is. ​“It’s also the sub­ject mat­ter that makes me emo­tion­al, because you can feel the sen­ti­ments peo­ple are going through while watch­ing their team. After all, I’m a fan first, pho­tog­ra­ph­er second.”

Rafiq’s favourite pic­ture is one of Lioness­es’ cap­tain, Leah Williamson, tak­en as she went up to her moth­er in the stands and blew kiss­es to her fam­i­ly after the tro­phy lift. In front of Williamson, play­ers Ella Toone and Beth Mead can be seen. There is pure joy on the faces of their fam­i­lies as the boards above the fam­i­ly box read ​‘WIN­NERS’.

“It was just per­fect,” says Rafiq. ​“I don’t remem­ber the last time I took a pho­to and just knew at that very moment that I had tak­en a pho­to I will cher­ish forever.”

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