Faye chamberlain

	Photo exhibition

‘Football Focus' was photographed by Faye Chamberlain, during the summers of 1998 and 2002, throughout each four-and-a-half-week football jamboree that was the World Cup. Whilst the world's media analysed the events on the pitch in a minutia of detail, Chamberlain turned her camera on the people for whom the World Cup is staged – the supporters.

Chamberlain's work captures the passion, anxiety, humour and despair of the 550 million people worldwide, who entrusted their dreams to the feet of eleven men, playing a game in another county, hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of miles away. Unable to influence their own emotional destinies, the fans gathered together to pray as part of a replica-wearing congregation, for a victory that would cement their togetherness, raise the value of their national pride and justify their faith.

In 1998, even though in Britain all of the games were screened on terrestrial television, the majority still made their way to the instant community of packed public houses, to watch the world's greatest circus unfold it's dramas, mysteries, horror scenes and happy endings. Fanatical followers of league teams stood shoulder-to-shoulder with open-mouthed casual supporters, drawn in by the social spectacle and sense of history being written.

In 2002, when cruel geography and time zones meant that the matches were shown when people had seemingly less important things to do than watch the tournament - although their bosses felt otherwise - workers were forced to endure 90 minutes of interruptions and nuisance throughout each game.

None of the photographs in this series have in any way been ‘set-up', but represent a showcase of people displaying their raw emotions, their inhibitions having been left at the door. The photographs act as a microcosm for the rivalries and allegiances, both created and shattered by these events taking place elsewhere. One only has to look at the faces of the gathered crowds to see that the ramifications of the events in France , Korea and Japan are as important as the events themselves.

For as long as David Batty will remember how it felt to see his penalty against Argentina not hit the back of the net, so too will the people pictured here remember how it felt to clutch wildly at their heads in disbelief.

Although some time has passed since these two World Cups, these photographs preserve forever the feeling that is generated when the world stops for a month so that it's people can cling to the 32 opposing sides of a collective dream.