OH UP THE DIDDY!

“Oh Up The Diddy” is a project of mine where I explore the idea of “Community & Location at Non-League Football”. During my time as a Second Year University student, I started out getting into sports photography, photographing various sports like football, rugby, hockey, and others. I started photographing Didcot Town FC games around November, and when starting my second semester at University we had to come up with an idea for my project about Visual Narratives and Cultural, so I thought that basing my project around Didcot Town FC and its community & location would be an interesting idea.

I felt like wanting to do a visual story at Didcot Town because of how open and warm they were to me. I truly started sports photography in October 2022, and I was learning my way on how to capture sports photos, the settings, the right exposure, and everything associated to post and cropping. I wanted to get more first-hand experience, so when I saw a post on their socials about looking for a photographer I asked if I were able to come along and take photographs to which they agreed. Over time since November when I first photographed Didcot to now, I have met countless wonderful people that encapsulate what non-league football is about and the spirit and pride they have when either volunteering at the club or just simply supporting the football team. Personally, I always had a problem regarding my social skills, so it was always hard for me to start up a conversation, get to know people, etc. For me to feel more confident about talking to people at the club, getting to know more of the people that work there and the players and staff that run the football club is always nice, and I feel less anxious as time moves on. I strive to capture everything I can at football games from the football match to smaller aspects like details and people so, creating a visual narrative story of the club feels like a big thank you to all the people that are there and that have been taking care of me.

The story I wanted to tell in my photobook is a typical match-day experience. But instead of focusing on the football match, I wanted to explore more of the community and location through my images. I did not want to include many action pictures because that’s not what I was investigating in my project. I want to show people who have not been to a Didcot Town FC game the type of community there is, the location, and what to expect. Normally at each Didcot Town home game, there are roughly 150+ fans in attendance, so I wanted to show that in my images, as well as the community, and the engagement the club gets from its locals, with the friendly atmosphere.