Manchester United's Old Trafford

Old Trafford: Red Sea

If you're going to do something, you may as well do it properly and I have quite a few variations on this Old Trafford print (or vantage point). This image, along with Red, White and Black, very quickly became red icons on the web and the limited edition prints are becoming icons on the walls of those reds who can be moved by the originality and quality of a concept, and you are as likely to find a copy on the walls of a London graphic design studio as a high-rise Salford flat. My original idea, when I scaled some scaffolding beyond Sir Matt Busby Way, was a picture and title along the lines of Red River. My first attempt was at an England match, but I finally nailed the image to the idea two or three months (and 5 attempts) later, at a Premiership match in the semi-dark of winter.
The flow of red shirts down Sir Matt Busby Way has been made to look like a river by the long exposure, though after some reflection the title had to be 'Red Sea'.
The feeling of elation when you get what has to be (close to) a perfect football ground image, is akin to what scoring the match-winning goal must be like; it's when years of practice pull together and bear fruit in that one moment. Unlike scoring a goal, however, an image lives beyond the memory because the image is the actual goal. When I finally bagged this Old Trafford picture I was dancing about on the scaffolding like a right tw*t and couldn't have cared less who saw me. When viewed at an exhibition by a respectable-looking Man U supporter, he asked which match the image was taken at?
I told him and he nodded in remembrance of battle.
'Yeah, I was there,' his adrenaline once more oiling his testosterone. 'When they came up here we gave it 'em. We had to, 'cause they gave it us when we went down to their place'.
I shrugged and grinned, because it's a long time since I've celebrated the stuff that separates and divides. These days my adrenaline flows mainly when attempting to do justice to a subject (in both words and pictures), which, in football, requires that you let go of any partisan feelings you may once have held; inclinations that are justified when you get Arsenal and Everton fans generously telling you your Old Trafford images are the best football ground prints they've ever seen.
Good photography can open eyes and truly unite.
At this point the guy's wife turned up, along with their two lovely young daughters. A flick in the direction of the prints and the look in her eyes told me she didn't share his Saturday obsession.
'Hello, love', he chirped. 'Just looking at the prints of Old Trafford. Good, aren't they...?'
No response. Same stern look.
'Right then, I'll be going. Cheers, mate,' he nodded sheepishly.
A quick roll of the eyes and he dutifully took hold of his his daughters' hands. He was back in 'husband mode'...at least until next Saturday, when the adrenaline and testosterone coagulate once more, just like it did on the Scoreboard End back in the day.

Old Trafford in Red White and Black (click image button)
This is my most popular Old Trafford print. In fact it's my most popular football print, though I have a feeling this new Old Trafford image could challenge it.
Like the image Red Sea, the idea came before the actual image and I wanted to get an image of Old Trafford made up of the three colours of Manchester United. The tail lights of the cars leaving the Old Trafford car par, at the end of a Premiership match, are set against the black of night and the white glow of the Old Trafford stadium lights.
I spent a good few matches up on my perch overlooking Old Trafford, from where I got many an earful of United songs (before the new North Stand boxed in much of the noise). Man United supporters are of course plentiful and a relatively literate bunch, and they must have one of the best collection of football songs (certainly the funniest) in the league, aided greatly by Pete Boyle. It's quite a contrast when you listen to football chants on televised matches and compare them to the shifty, vague language politicians and talking heads use on TV, who speak in meaningless platitudes and cliches; seldom challenging, rarely entertaining and never imparting a jewel of wisdom. Rising from the stands you might hear chants like West Ham's original Old Trafford taunt of '60,000 muppets' (which has been amended to 75,000) or the Scouser's classic response (to United fans' Liver-aid rendition of 'feed the Scousers'), 'you can stick your prawn sandwiches up your arse'. 'You're just a load of biggots,' was aimed at Rangers fans, and then turned on it's head in United's recent match against Celtic, with the chant 'are you Rangers in disguise'!
Philosophy it ain't, but football songs have a raw humour and an (albeit crude) honesty that the Pravda-like bleating of the PRadvertorials, corporate non-speak and news-as-product rarely achieves. If only solidarity reached beyond the separate tribes and the brilliantly written fanzines, and extended to the species as a whole.
The choral tradition of the terraces has been taken up by FC United supporters at Gigg Lane, who currently have a full repertoire of chants and p*ss-takes, one of their best song sheets being 'I wanna BE...an FC', rattled off to the Sex Pistols 'Anarchy in the UK'. In one of their inaugural friendlies (against either Leigh or Horwich RMI), I asked a friend of mine who played against them whether they were they any good?
The team were OK, but he said the fans were the real stars: 'there were 3 streakers before half time!'
If you want a taste of biting terrace humour at it's most savage, bury your prime colours for a couple of hours and get yourself along to Gigg Lane for the craic.

I originally shot this Old Trafford image on Fuji slide film and the picture retained a colour cast. To take the image closer to my original idea, I converted the image to black and white and then painted in the relevant red detail, including the red brick houses on Sir Matt Busby Way.
Like REDS and the newer stuff, this print looks particularly impressive on the semi-reflective, metallic photographic paper, because under the right lighting the highlights glow.