| Description |
"Going to the match" is a journey around rural pitches and forgotten stadiums as well as the most tremendous of football arenas. It is a world filled with emotion, devotion, depression and frustration. Niciejewski has spent many years recording the experiences of football supporters with his camera. Most of his pictures were taken in Poland, Germany and England, where he has visited hundreds of stadiums over the past few years. However, he has missed most of the goals that have been scored: with his camera always trained on the terraces, Niciejewski says this is the only way to objectively depict the world of the football supporter.
These are the two-hour waits for a good shot in front of Banksy's mural. Returning to Cologne, Niciejewski hoped to find a supporter watching the Fortuna match from outside the stadium. This photo was taken at Anfield at the last possible moment before radical changes took place around the stadium. Sometimes the local side was watched by just one spectator, but even so they would be as fanatically involved in supporting their side as a Real or Barcelona fan.
"Going to the match" is also a portrait of those people who measure their life in football fixtures, of people who repeat fixed rituals without a second thought. The road to the stadium alone becomes a ceremony every bit as important as the match itself: the same route, the same pub and the same match day programme seller. It is a unique collection of all these crucial supporter experiences captured in a series of single shots. Niciejewski infiltrates this world with his camera and depicts the emotions that accompany this beautiful game.
The album contains over 130 colour photographs. It is complemented by 20 quotations that accurately describe the typical supporter's state of mind. The title of the album refers to the L.S. Lowry painting that depicts the supporters of Bolton Wanderers on their way to watch the "Trotters". The painting inspired Niciejewski to photograph football supporters and answer questions about the sense of supporting.
28 x 21 cms, hardback, 224 pages.
2016
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