Visiting the barber is an event that I always look forward to as I usually get to have a beer, sit down and have a chat with my pal. For me it is a chance to talk about football and share funny stories about our past experiences about girls, previous jobs and football. Before my arrival I always make sure that I pick him up a can of Red-bull and a packet of biscuits, usually those of the highest calorie count I can find as he is always on a diet or moaning about his weight. This is symbolic of our relationship as I too spend too much time worrying about my weight. A packet of biscuits is our small piece of activism against the pressures of being in our late thirties, a mortgage, children and our weight.

On this occasion I decided to take my camera with me, unsure how it may contribute to my project but I felt at the very least it was an opportunity to practice my portraits. When scouting the space I suddenly noticed the Eric Cantona mural on the wall. This not only represented a great project opportunity but a way of opening up my project to a theme of heroes. As a child I remember having many footballing heroes and on occasion the opportunity to get a photo with one of my footballing heroes presented itself.

With Julian Germain (Soccer in Wonderland) and Emma Case (Red) in mind I thought about the prospect of opening up my project with a socially engaged element where I could collect photographs of fans with their footballing heroes in addition to collecting short responses to imagery of footballing heroes. Social media will be a good mechanism for this experiment in addition to having the potential to find out some interesting and relevant information.

I will explore and develop this avenue throughout the module.

Case, E (2018) [Online] Available at: https://theredarchive.org/about (Accessed 7th Oct 2020)

Germain, J (1994) Soccer in Wonderland Booth-Clibborn Editions, London.