Football in Africa
July 10, 2010 2:26 PM Subscribe
Jessica Hilltout has been traveling around Africa taking pictures of matches as they are played in the continent's small villages, its players, goals, boots and balls. It is especially striking to compare that last collection to all the official World Cup balls. You can see slightly larger versions of some of Hilltout's pictures here and here.
this person is depressed, i own a hasselblad.
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:06 PM on July 10, 2010
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:06 PM on July 10, 2010
Hilltout makes some absolutely gorgeous photos. Some of her portrait work is nothing short of stunning. Thank you for posting this.
posted by heyho at 3:31 PM on July 10, 2010
posted by heyho at 3:31 PM on July 10, 2010
Apparently, one of the 1962 World Cup balls was named "Mr. Crack".
I put 20 seconds on the board; let the one-liners rip.
posted by 3FLryan at 4:01 PM on July 10, 2010
I put 20 seconds on the board; let the one-liners rip.
posted by 3FLryan at 4:01 PM on July 10, 2010
the balls are incredibly beautiful. people will make do for a good bit of fun and games. poverty during soccer time? just a state of mind.
posted by liza at 4:25 PM on July 10, 2010
posted by liza at 4:25 PM on July 10, 2010
Quite nostalgic...
Having grown up in the "developing world" I have many memories of playing football in inappropriate / unusual / strikingly beautiful places with non-conventional footballs, and this website reminds me of those experiences...
..but that's where it ends..
I don't see anything that differs from my pictures / experiences of playing football in Mexico (under the church on the hill at sunset) or playing badminton in Baja (with impoverished children and then leaving them the net and rackets and taking pictures of their faces beaming up at me), save for the neat Flash interface.
I appreciate her kindred spirit, nomadic artist, taoist attitude and, especially, her focus on African grassroots football in the shadow of the flair of SA's world cup debut, but the whole thing smacks, to me, of art student, looking to be seen tripe..
Maybe it was the "hardcover coffee table limited edition" that did me in, or maybe I didn't peruse the website enough, but I would love to know exactly how much of the proceeds of said book made their way back to buy an actual soccer ball for every group photographed (something I KNOW would have been appreciated by the models / photography subjects).
It's late - maybe I just didn't dig deep enough into the site - but there was an art-house feel / emptiness / profit-driven / lack of content to the site that I couldn't get over given my background and experience in the field of developing nation football.
It just reminded me of the day the white guy from Europe came to my school, rode his unicycle around at recess, took a bunch of pictures of us kids and disappeared never to be heard from again...
posted by tbonicus at 9:51 AM on July 11, 2010
Having grown up in the "developing world" I have many memories of playing football in inappropriate / unusual / strikingly beautiful places with non-conventional footballs, and this website reminds me of those experiences...
..but that's where it ends..
I don't see anything that differs from my pictures / experiences of playing football in Mexico (under the church on the hill at sunset) or playing badminton in Baja (with impoverished children and then leaving them the net and rackets and taking pictures of their faces beaming up at me), save for the neat Flash interface.
I appreciate her kindred spirit, nomadic artist, taoist attitude and, especially, her focus on African grassroots football in the shadow of the flair of SA's world cup debut, but the whole thing smacks, to me, of art student, looking to be seen tripe..
Maybe it was the "hardcover coffee table limited edition" that did me in, or maybe I didn't peruse the website enough, but I would love to know exactly how much of the proceeds of said book made their way back to buy an actual soccer ball for every group photographed (something I KNOW would have been appreciated by the models / photography subjects).
It's late - maybe I just didn't dig deep enough into the site - but there was an art-house feel / emptiness / profit-driven / lack of content to the site that I couldn't get over given my background and experience in the field of developing nation football.
It just reminded me of the day the white guy from Europe came to my school, rode his unicycle around at recess, took a bunch of pictures of us kids and disappeared never to be heard from again...
posted by tbonicus at 9:51 AM on July 11, 2010
tbonicus: I would love to know exactly how much of the proceeds of said book made their way back to buy an actual soccer ball for every group photographed (something I KNOW would have been appreciated by the models / photography subjects).
From the New York Times link: "Ms. Hilltout, 33, accepted these balls, each like a small, hand-wrapped gift, from the children who made them when she gave them the factory-made kind they longed for."
posted by Kattullus at 8:23 PM on July 11, 2010
From the New York Times link: "Ms. Hilltout, 33, accepted these balls, each like a small, hand-wrapped gift, from the children who made them when she gave them the factory-made kind they longed for."
posted by Kattullus at 8:23 PM on July 11, 2010
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posted by nicolin at 2:39 PM on July 10, 2010