Football Photography writing
Features written for When Saturday Comes magazine, 2004 onwards
John Hollowbread, White Hart Lane, 1964
Photograph by Gerry Cranham ©Offside
Published in When Saturday Comes 211, September 2004
It’s not entirely certain when this picture of Spurs goalkeeper John Hollowbread was taken, but it was probably in December 1963 or January 1964* since the photographer, Gerry Cranham, remembers it as one of his first assignments after returning from John F Kennedy’s funeral in late November 1963. It could be against Blackburn, on January 11, 1964, as they wore an away kit like the one just visible in the distance.
Cranham had been rather disgruntled that none of his Kennedy funeral pictures had found a publisher. However, he didn’t return from the United States completely empty-handed. He had picked up a remote camera device that he had seen used at basketball games, whereby the camera could be attached to the basket. This was one of the first times he had used the remote at a football match, placing the camera in the back of the net. His equipment was otherwise quite crude by today’s standards, but it certainly did the trick on this occasion.
As well as framing the towering old East Stand, down to the detail of the cockerel on the roof, Cranham catches Hollowbread in mid-leap, seemingly sucked up into the night sky and silhouetted against the glare of the floodlights. An inspired piece of observation considering there appears to be no excitement of note – presumably Hollowbread was jumping to keep warm.
Hollowbread himself is a rather less famous than the picture. He was first choice for the 1959-60 season, but the side finished 18th and Bill Nicholson, who took over that year, replaced him with Bill Brown. Hollowbread appeared just once in Spurs’ 1960-61 double season and after a short run in the season pictured he was sold to Southampton as Pat Jennings emerged. His career was curtailed by injury soon after. He is, at least, preserved in this iconic image.
Unusually for a sports photograph, the picture has been recognised in art circles. It was shown in the Victoria & Albert museum’s photo gallery as part of an exhibit in the Seventies. Cranham initially thought the request was a practical joke as the previous exhibition was devoted to Henri Cartier Bresson – and apparently didn’t include any photos of Spurs goalkeepers.
Doug Cheeseman
*It was actually 4th January 1964, FA Cup third round, Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea. This picture also features in ‘This Sporting Life’.
Football in the 1990s
Photographs by Tony Davis
Published in When Saturday Comes 291, May 2011
A Derby fan since the 1960s – he is the one of the boys holding the ‘Clough In, Directors Out’ banner at the Baseball Ground in 1972 that appears in every Brian Clough documentary – Tony Davis came to photography by a roundabout route. He spent hours in local libraries poring over classic photobooks by Leonard Freed, Marc Riboud and Cartier Bresson. Just as he was leaving school he was told he should go to art college but like many working-class school leavers of his age he drifted into the engineering trade.
Tony’s creative instincts eventually emerged in his own photography. He pursued the compositional style of those he’d admired, with contrasting foreground and background elements, and subjects naturally framed or distinctively cropped.
In the early 1990s WSC was evolving visually and Tony’s approach – taking an interest in off-beat and uncommercial subjects – fitted perfectly. He was prepared to turn up on spec at press calls and at tournaments home and abroad, looking for unusual pictures. “Carrying my portable camera I used to get laughed at by the sports regulars. To me they all looked like they were going fishing with the amount of gear they were lugging around,” he recalls.
These are some of Tony’s favourites from the period. At the Baseball Ground in 1992 Marco Gabbiadini is the new signing talking to the press; behind him in the fog is manager Arthur Cox, flush with transfer funds from Lionel Pickering’s recent takeover. At World Cup 1994, a sponsor’s mascot leaves his outfit in the humid heat of New York. During the 1993 European Under-19 youth championship, two teams line up at Sincil Bank, Lincoln – a starkly-cropped official looms over the proceedings. Nelson Mandela is framed through the shoulders of his vast security guard presence in Johannesburg at the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations. At Elm Park, Reading, in 1998, young fans perch on a floodlight base while their dads watch the match from the terraces behind. Diverse though the subjects are, the pictures share an astutely crafted approach; football is treated with affection and as a subject worthy of serious visual scrutiny.
By the end of 1990s the filing cabinets at the WSC office were no longer filling up with piles of black-and-white contact sheets but these prints remain with the tangible feel of the pre-digital age. Tony is as erudite and engaging today as when he first turned up at WSC bursting with ideas. He now teaches, and builds racing motorbikes.
Doug Cheeseman
See more of Tony’s photography on Instagram.