Words and Photos: Nick Bannehr
Video: Johno Oldham, Nick Bannehr, Sam Bratby
Photographer and Glory friend Nick Bannehr has this year released Real Football, a limited-edition photobook documenting one of Britain's oldest and most ferocious sporting traditions: the medieval football match of Chiddingstone.
Played every Good Friday in the English village of Chiddingstone, this ungoverned match pits two teams of 200 players against one another in a four-hour battle across open fields, country roads, and riverbanks. With few rules and goals over a mile apart, it's more than a game - it's a ritual of endurance, community, and chaos.
"I discovered Real Football while researching British traditions in a bid to better understand the contemporary culture I was living in at the time", Bannehr explains. "These games only happen once a year in a few scattered towns in the UK, and yet they've survived for centuries. That mix of ancient custom and raw physicality is what pulled me in straight away."
Shot in Bannehr's instinctive, cinematic style, the work captures the scrums, the stillness, the sudden eruptions of movement and emotion. "The tone of the work emerged naturally. I wasn't a bystander - I ran with the players, chased the ball through muddy paddocks and over stone fences. At one point, I even had to push the ball aside to avoid becoming part of the game. I wanted to sit in the energy source and point my camera at it as it simmered around me."
At its heart, Real Football is a meditation on tradition and the strange, essential human need to escape. "For a few hours, the modern world fades away. There are no screens, no structure - just instinct, mud, and the collective release of doing something real together."
Watch the incredible footage now on our YouTube Channel by hitting this image:
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You can also buy the book:
Nick Bannehr is an Australian photographer and filmmaker who up until recently was based out of London, UK. His work blends fine art and documentary traditions, exploring the rituals, spectacles, and human stories that connect us across time and place. Bannehr explores the tension between personal and collective experiences, offering insights into how people navigate tradition and identity.
Nick's photobook is presented as a 68-page, Singer-sewn softcover, featuring a removable dust jacket that doubles as a poster. It's self-published in London, UK, in an edition of only 100 copies. Contact Nick directly to buy or to request more information here.
