Rachael Hutchings speaks with the Football Association of Wales artist in residence Faye Chamberlain about her work during the historical campaign.
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With the rush of Euro 2016, Wales’s football supporters have been getting increasingly excited about the prospects of their beloved team after a near 60-year dry spell from this level of competition. No less can be said about the Artist in Residence of the Football Association of Wales Trust, photographer Faye Chamberlain, who is giddy and animated when discussing her involvement and contribution with us.
What does it mean to her to be the Artist in Residence for the FAW Trust at such a pivotal point in football history? “It means the world. It is such an amazing residency. I love football, I love photography, put the two things together and I’m happy! I’ve got to meet amazing people. I get to see the work of the FAW Trust, which is working with grassroots football, so I get to meet people who love playing football, who have only just discovered it, who are just amazing people and I get to chat to them all and take their pictures.”
She smiles and giggles as she reflects on the praise she’s received for the Football Focus project she has done in the past, where the reactions of football fans have been captured as they watch World Cup matches. “I had an exhibition…and as you do when you are a photographer or an artist, I went and stood by my work thinking that nobody would know it’s me and I could listen to all the comments. A man came up and he went ‘Wow! This one is just amazing!’ and I thought ‘I’ve made it.’ And then he goes ‘I remember watching that match!’ and that was it!”
Faye grins, it is evident she doesn’t take herself too seriously, but with so much of her work being based on so many different, deep concepts, it was interesting to find out what inspired and motivated her to pursue her talents. “My motivation was I did A-Level Art at school and was rubbish at it! They gave us a picture one day and said ‘right, draw that’ and I thought what’s the point in drawing it if somebody has already taken a picture of it, and the picture is really nice! That’s what made me start thinking that photography might be more my way into art than drawing.” She’s very frank, and enjoys explaining to us how there is another side of football she’s aiming to uncover with her residency rather than the traditional concepts that everybody is expecting. “Everybody keeps asking me ‘have you met Gareth Bale?’ and ‘have you been photographing Gareth Bale?’ No! This is about people who are not well known but are heroic in their own way. And as it is landscapes as well, it’s not going to be a load of people playing football. There probably won’t be any of footballers playing! It’ll just be big sweeping landscapes. It’ll be done all across Wales so it’ll be different areas to those people have may have seen before.”
As anybody who is familiar with Faye’s work will know, it encompasses a large variety of subject matter. Is there a link that defines all of her projects and work? “The link is people. Whether it is landscape, whether it is portrait or anything else, it’s always to do with people in the community.” And does she believe that a link also exists between art and sports in this instance? She gasps as I ask the question. “The connection is, whether you play sport or whether you take pictures, I think for me personally it’s that you get a massive thrill from each of them. I love football, I love the heightened emotions you get from that – and I love taking pictures! I love it when you know you’ve got an amazing picture and I love hunting it out- like hunting the ball down during a game. I think the connection is just implicit.”
Faye Chamberlain, FAW Trust. Info: www.fayechamberlain.co.uk