Women's Rugby Documentary Photography: East London Vixens
The team that makes room for everybody
This series came out of an AOP f22 project. f22 is the Association of Photographers' group for women photographers, and the brief was deliberately loose: make work on the theme of community, and use it as a reason to collaborate and connect with other female photographers and networks. I took it to a rugby pitch in east London and spent a winter with the East London Vixens, the women's side at East London RFC.
I am struck by the authenticity of these powerful women who don't feel the pressure to display a conventional view of femininity. I notice the support they offer each other, and the hardworking, unpretentious team dynamic. The team provides a space for everybody, no matter what shape or size, building communities on and off the pitch that reflect a wonderful sense of belonging.
The pictures are made close in and mostly in low winter light: the warm-up in claret and gold with the scrum machine behind, one player looking out from inside a huddle, a tattooed forearm bound around a teammate as the scrum sets, a mouthguard going in with everyone laughing at once. Very little of it is the moment a sports photographer is usually sent to get. That's the point, a club side isn't defined by the try, it's defined by the forty other things that happen around it.
The men's side of the same club has its own project: grass-roots rugby at East London RFC, including the derby with the Kings Cross Steelers. At the other end of the game, there's a black and white series with Saracens Women in the Premiership. More in the sports photography portfolio, or talk to me about a documentary commission.