Goal Diggers FC: Women’s and Non Binary Football
Documentary Football Photography for Clubs and Brands
Goal Diggers FC is a non profit grassroots club in Hackney for women and non binary players, founded by Fleur Cousens in 2015 and run by volunteers. I photographed a Saturday league fixture against South London WFC on a pitch so foggy you could not see the far touchline, which turned out to be a gift.
Sport, connection and community
The mist did the job a photographer usually has to do by hand. It flattened the background to nothing, separated the gold shirts from everything behind them, and softened everything past about twenty metres. So the frames that carry the set are not the tackles. They are the huddle before kick off, two players walking off arm in arm, and a pair of legs in orange boots with the goalmouth dissolving behind them.
Grassroots football is photographed from the touchline by default, and it always looks the same. I spent most of this one low, at boot height, and behind the team rather than in front of it, because a club like this one is not selling the result. It is selling belonging, and belonging is something you see from behind somebody's shoulder rather than from the halfway line.
More football: grassroots girls' football with APYFC, the Nike x Rebel Girls day, and the Super 5 League. The full sports photography portfolio is here, and commissions for club and brand work.
If you run a club, a league or a campaign in women's sport and want photographs your players actually want to be in, get in touch.