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City ’til I Die
Some recent work by photographer and Bradford City supporter Neil Bedford.‘These were shot during 2009. The project was for the MA I was studying at the London College of Fashion and started with a portrait of my Uncle, who has the City Gent tattooed on his left arm. I found most sitters during the summer months at Valley Parade when their tattoos were visible. Others came from football forums and friends of friends‘.__________________________________
Probably the most iconic image associated with Bradford City is the City Gent character introduced in 1966 at a time when English football clubs attempted to emulate the example of World Cup Willie and launched their own characters to present a more modern face to the sport. In the case of Bradford City, the City Gent was a cartoon of then chairman Stafford Heginbotham.
For the generation of supporters who followed the club between 1966 and 1974 the City Gent character had a great appeal and was THE choice of tattoo on the Valley Parade terraces for much of the seventies. There was a story that a certain tattooist on Manchester Road ‘did the best City Gent’ and certainly, as I recall from a fair number of dubious versions, not all tattooists could do justice to the original.
Since then it would appear that the club crest has assumed a comparable level of popularity, if not become the prime choice. Having never had a tattoo I won’t pretend to be an expert but my own choice would have been a City Gent on the forearm. In my view this would have been eminently preferable to resorting simply to B-C-F-C (although I recall a fair number of such examples on knuckles!).John Dewhirst
Co-founder of The City Gent in 1984, former editor and author of club histories.
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ama-fucking-zing!
loving it
Comment by Maxime Buechi — March 18, 2010 @ 8:00 am
superb.
Comment by munro — March 18, 2010 @ 1:18 pm
simply brilliant!!!!!
WE WANT THE BOOK
Comment by bevan — March 18, 2010 @ 6:03 pm
[...] Bedford was easily able to cast subjects for this collection, including his Uncle. Source: Sang Bleu Neil [...]
Pingback by Neil Bedford “City ‘Til I Die” | Hypebeast — March 21, 2010 @ 9:40 am
Very erudite Maxine; is that your real name ? if so, a little depressing and maybe not what the author was hoping for to add to his CV.
‘Superb’ is an improvement but again on what criterion ? Did munro study the history of art or the more subtle choices of expressing an idea through visual media, specifically photography and the exclusion of distracting detail ?
How much is Bevan willing to pay for a book before inciting reckless commercial investment by Neil ?
The analysis is somewhat ruined by opening it up to just football maniacs; my first observation is that the project could have been sponsored by ‘World of Leather’ :-) but I’ll not condemn Neil in any way; try harder, which you have already done using large format and just think of the wonderful Bradford artists of recent past to align yourself with as you progress, which I’m sure you will. The sincerity of the portrait sitters is….nice; common City….
Comment by Richard — March 27, 2010 @ 5:27 am
Thanks Richard. Very useful. Slighty funny. Had a quick look at your site. Ama-fucking-zing work. Keep it up!
Comment by Adrian Wilson — March 28, 2010 @ 2:39 pm
Ah hmm, looks like a resurgence of the Dadaists… on acid….the succinct but meaningful analysis.
Comment by Richard — March 29, 2010 @ 6:07 am
Absolutely.
Goodbye.
Comment by Adrian Wilson — March 29, 2010 @ 7:42 am