Recording the life at hand through photography
Glasgow Celtic Fans Unofficial Premiership Title Party
I’ve never been a fan of football, or soccer as it’s known in some parts of the world. Aside from not understanding the rules, I wonder at a society that places more financial rewards on some of its sporting stars over those of science and the arts. The names McCullin and Coltrane have had significant influence on my life while Beckham and Rooney most definitely have not.
Here in the West of Scotland there is another issue that permeates football and society. The two big Glasgow teams, Rangers and Celtic, are associated with both sides of a religious divide that, although less widespread these days, still runs deep in some sections of our society, including some areas of the media. My abhorrence of bigotry and discrimination does affect my photography, there are some things that I will, or more accurately cannot bring myself to photograph and share, particularly sectarian parades.
As one such parade made its way through Glasgow city centre on the morning on 17th may 2025, I was at home getting ready to travel in for the second big event of that day – the Glasgow Celtic fan’s unofficial title celebrations, where they were expected to descend on the east end of the city centre in the thousands to celebrate their team winning the Scottish Premiership league title. The event is not sanctioned by the authorities, which in the preceding days led to some handwringing from Police Scotland, Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Celtic FC. Previous gatherings had caused serious disruption for local residents and businesses and a huge financial bill for the subsequent clean up and damage repair, yet no one had come up with a sensible solution for a dedicated fan zone. A last-minute plea for supporters not to attend was almost certainly going to be ignored, in fact knowing the local psyche such a request would more likely have the opposite effect, a rallying call to show the team colours.
This time around I would also be showing those same colours in my images. Earlier in the year I had made a move to freelance work, which required me to submit images to the news agency in colour rather than my preferred black and white. I will write about this another time, but it had taken a bit of adjustment to see in colour again, although the constant sunshine that has been gifted to us as part of the driest Spring on record has helped too, which has led my new mantra - too bright for black and white.
I arrived at the main meeting point to find an already heavy Police presence, quite a few fans and some of my photographer friends. It wasn’t long before the celebrations got underway and the shooting started. The atmosphere was incredible – a cacophony of noise with flares spewing green and orange smoke against the afternoon sun. Some fireworks were let off too, one in particular far too close for comfort. These stunts are illegal and eventually counted amongst the reasons given in the post-match analysis for the relatively small number of arrests made.
I like to work as wide and close as possible, so once again I found myself in the thick of the main action. Eventually the smoke got too much for me, so I worked in short bursts – a few minutes right in beside the fans then retreat to a safe spot to get my breath and sight back, then repeat all over again.
The fans were generally in great mood, no doubt aided by the warm afternoon sun and any alcohol which had evaded Police confiscation. There was no hint of media hostility, in fact I found it difficult to get the shots that I really wanted due to the number of requests for group shots, most of which will remain on my hard drive.
Ironically, after about ninety minutes had elapsed, I was in real danger of filling my cards with repetitive shots, so called it quits while I was ahead. I wanted to get a selection uploaded to the picture desk as soon as practically possible, so there’s no point shooting more than necessary.
In the days that followed the media once again concentrated on the negatives surrounding this event, issues that could easily be avoided if the authorities engaged in some joined up thinking and provided a dedicated safe environment that met the requirements of everyone involved. Hopefully this will be in place for next year, whichever of the big two win.
