91,553.
Attendances occur each week in football. They are statistics that are recorded and filed into the almanacs of a football past, but what if a particular attendance meant that little bit more.
The female game, Women’s Football, The Lioness’s are a few variation’s of what we’ve come to celebrate as just Football. We’ve seen an evolution, a confidence and a new dawn flow upon us in the shape of skillful, professional and extremely talented women grace the green bladed grass of our football stadiums, its been magical.
But one evening and one photographer sticks-out in the mind as capturing this new and exuberant future in its greatest light. Camp Nou & Susana Ferreira.
Camp Nou.
When Barcelona and Real Madrid match-up in any capacity the occasion is always one that captures the headlines and the passion of Spanish Football. El Clasico has given us some of the finest moments in world football as well as housing some of the greatest ever players to lace-up a pair of boots. Ronaldo, Laudrup, Alfredo Di Stefano, Messi, Ronaldinho and Alexia Putellas.
The stage was set, the Nou Camp was buzzing and Susana’s camera was loaded with a 35mm film. The rest as they say is history. A moment to cherish would hardly put a stamp on this occasion because it was more than that, it meant more than that. Women’s Football had reached certain attendance heights before, but this one felt different. This was a new feeling of accomplishment, a realization and a factual surpassing of a threshold. Loosening the grip to allow for a new freedom. It was a celebration of Football.
Alexia and her band of jubilant fellow football stars embraced and lapped up the adoring crowd and the response was one of magical status. On the Pitch the football did not disappoint either, a rousing 5-2 victory on the night for Barca was wrapped up nicely by the aforementioned breaking into the Real Madrid box and firing a shot towards goal. With the keeper managing to grasp a hand onto the shot it slowly crept over the line. The celebration being one that matched the occasion with the Barca captain and number 11 raising a hand and then bowing to her adoring public. A moment.
Alexia Putellas
For Susana and her camera the atmosphere was waiting for her to soak up the occasion, with images and iconic views that only the Nou Camp can muster. With daytime hours quickly dwindling, the Nou Camp turned into a hive of spectatorship, neon colors, technological twinkling of phone screens and the incandescent beams of smiling faces. This wasn’t a football match, it was a moment of triumph, a celebration, a milestone that purely suggested that Football had finally won.
Moments, with Real Madrid being awarded a penalty and the subdued crowd becoming a chorus of disgruntled whistles, only for the fires to roar a matter of minutes later, the captivation and the enormity becoming a sudden moment of dawning. If the Barcelona sun had long since set, the women’s game was experiencing its own individual sun-rise.
Susana captures the atmosphere on 35mm
Images, captured by Susana that not only portray the essence of that momentous evening in Barcelona but highlighted a shifting of the tides. A new dawn was upon us and this was its opening ceremony.
91,553.
Susana’s work and beautiful photography can be followed, liked and embraced here.
Susana’s work on 35mm
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