Exhibition shows faces of football

Deprees visited two World Cups to get his shots

A new photography exhibition in Newcastle is showing a different side to the beautiful game - by focusing on the fans in the terraces.

Photographer Ravi Deprees' exhibition Patriots, which is being shown at the Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University from Saturday, is shot from the fan's perspective.

And Deprees says, shows the kind of identity that can be found following football.

The exhibition includes shots the photographer took at the World Cups in France in 1998 and in Japan/South Korea last year.

Also included are shots he took at games in the UK.

The 2002 World Cup is the main focus of the exhibition - and Deprees says has become fascinated at the way football teams have become a focus point for people's identity.

Deprees is fascinated by the crowd culture at games

"When I was in Japan I noticed there were obstacles with other cultures.

"I found I wanted to look more into the idea of adopted identity, and about the culture clash that happened there.

"Most of the European fans would never have been in Japan.

"I was really amazed at how happy the fans were to adopt the other countries."

"I've always been interested with issues of identity - my personal identity isn't quite clear. I'm Asian but I live in England. And football crowd have fascinated me from an early age."

Deprees shots include a Japanese fan in an England shirt, a video still of a French fan with his face painted, and a cross of St George hanging in a window.

Deprees was nearly mugged five times at the 1998 Wolrd Cup

Other shots focus on crowds fixated on the games in front of them

Depress, a Newcastle United fan said he was particularly keen on showing the crowd dynamic.

"I wanted to look at individual identity, and how that becomes part of this bigger psychological mass."

There is also the volatility too - Deprees says all it takes is a few people to turn the mood of even the biggest crowd. "I find that really intriguing."

Deprees has managed to avoid trouble taking his pictures.

"The only time I was worried was when I was in Paris at the World Cup. I nearly got mugged about five times.

The 2002 World Cup was marked by peaceful crowds

"And the crowd was so packed we couldn't move at all. There were people fainting. For soime reason I managed to take quite a few photographs, but it was really frightening."

During other games he was able to sanp away undisturbed. "Inside the stadium you can be quite close to someone, but they're so focused on the game they don't even see you."

Deprees hopes to take the exhibition to London after the Newcastle showing, and then through the country - Newcaslte games permitting.