The Beautiful Game is a journey through the magic of football. It’s about the way the game unites people from all walks of life, regardless of their cultural or social backgrounds, all sharing the same mixture of emotions. Each game absorbed the spectators so intensely that they forget about the camera pointing at them.
The photographs show in this series were taken during the 2006 World Cup, when I divided my time between London and Paris, going from pubs to bars, trying to catch the essence of each football game through people’s expression.
In the same way as the supporters are staring at the screen, and only the screen, I’m staring at the faces, and only them. I deliberately chose not to show the TV screens in any of my shots, to stay focused on the individuals and their emotions, and that way create a mystery about what it is exactly that the faces in the photographs are so mesmerised by. What are they all looking at? These photographs draw us into the emotions of the moment, may it be an instant of victory or defeat, joy or sadness.
Dean Dorat is a french photographer, based in London. She graduated from l’Ecole des metiers de l’image (CFT Gobelins), Paris, before moving to London in 2000. She worked with Photovoice (UK based charity), and Sight of Emotion (Mexican NGO) as a facilitator on the Beyond Sight project (a workshop on sensory photography for the blind and visually impaired).
