The Twelfth Man
The Twelfth Man is a project from Matt Cottis at IYA Studio and photographer Dylan Collard which focusses on regular Londoners, and how the stark contrasts of the capital’s landscape provides unique and sometimes unexpected follies for their chosen sport.
From the lily-white clothed figures of the locals playing cricket in Kennington Park, surrounded by the huge tower blocks that stand as sentinels around the boundary; to the twenty-two players that turn out in all weathers for a regular game of footy at bacon’s college in rotherhithe. The north bank view of their game dominated by the now sadly iconic buildings of canary wharf. Once pillars of the heady, spend-all days of excess, they now loom over the pitch as unwanted spectators.
The sport, the architecture and the neighbourhood may change, but the common thread binding these photographs together are the people. Wherever the place, whatever the weather and whatever the sport, without them the game ceases to exist.
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