Artist-in-residence for both the Football Association and Sport England, internationally acclaimed photographer Stuart Roy Clarke, is to present on his work at the University of Leicester in a free public event.
The University’s Unit for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement (DICE) will host the event titled: ‘The Game: Football’s Future and its Past- in Pictures’ at 6pm on Thursday 9th February 2017.
The presentation, from the author of a series of picture books on football including The Homes of Football, will involve a discussion of the changes occurring at all levels of the game.
Clarke will use his extraordinary photographs to discuss football’s relevance and importance to fans, how the sport and its culture has changed, and the future for the women’s game.
The DICE Unit, in the School of Media, Communication and Sociology, serves as an instrument to promote diversity, inclusion and community engagement on a local and national level.
John Williams from the School of Media, Communication and Sociology and Co-Director of DICE, said: “We are hugely fortunate that Stuart Clarke and his camera were ever-present at one of the key moments in the recent history of English football: the transformation of stadia, crowds and fan culture which occurred as the game recovered from the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989 and prepared to move into the new moneyed, TV-driven Premier League era from 1992.
“More than any policy advisor, critic or administrator could, Stuart Clarke has captured aspects of the unique architecture of British football grounds and the extraordinary vitality and diversity of the game’s traditional fan base, before the arrival of ‘new’ football in England. Much of this has since changed: most modern stadia are rationalised, rather sterile, spaces today. And supporter cultures have also changed dramatically, as prices and the new disciplines of stadium usage have had their impact.
“We can use Stuart’s magnificent photographs of ‘football as home’ as a vital starting place to discuss what has improved in the game and the football spectator experience over the past 25 years – but also what has been lost, perhaps for good.”
To book your place at the event visit: https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/sociology/dice/events/football-booking-form/
