It’s football art, but not exactly as you know it.
Football and art may not immediately spring to mind as ideal bedfellows, but recent years have seen the two feature more prominently together in mainstream media.
This is evidenced by the host of Premier League and Championship sides who have lately decided to move away from the traditional match programme and opt instead to commission some of the hugely talented football illustrators out there to bring a touch of freshness to match day.
In many ways, football and visual art are a match made in heaven; when done well both can resonate with millions and be more than the sum of their parts. Also, and on a quite basic level, combining football and art gives us some really interesting representations on our favourite footballers.
Model Pros, a project by illustrators Luke Edwards and Steve Welsh, does exactly that and gives us one of the most irreverent takes on footballers we’ve seen for some time.
The idea for the project – which uses a collage style to meld two seemingly opposed photographs together – came about after Welsh stumbled upon Edwards’ Instagram account.
The project – as you can see for yourself – is visually stunning and the combination of footballers from a bygone era with cuts from fashion shoots offers a unique perspective on the image of the sport.
“When ideas come along I tend to just create things which I feel look right in my own mind. I wanted to put a spin on retro images and presenting them in slightly skewed way,” said Edwards to JOE.
“I’ve always produced collages, which by their nature promote the idea of juxtaposition, so its a theme you’ll see in a lot of my work. It provides an alternate identity/angle to an image and challenges your initial view of it.”
That juxtaposition is also something touched on by Welsh, and the jarring visual disparity is something that stands out hugely from their work.
“Taking a selection of ‘proper football men’ and placing them in high end fashion shoots emphasises how footballing ability is almost secondary to image these days, with modern players aligning themselves with specific brands and having their ‘global image’ managed by PR teams,” said Welsh, whose previous project – F is for Football – saw the illustrator create a footballer portrait using player names that begin with each letter of the alphabet.
“So as a project, I still think it has a lot of avenues to explore, and it’s fun putting them together to be honest. Hopefully it’s a project that will evolve over time, so watch this space.”
Luke Edwards’ work can be found on his Instagram page.
Steve Welsh’s work can be seen on his Twitter account and Instagram page.
