THE BEAUTIFUL GAME – SIMON HARSENT

Born out of his two great loves, football and photography, Simon Harsent’s The Beautiful Game leaves viewers with the same beating heart one might experience when their team finds the back of the net.

“I see football pitches in much the same way as I see theatre,” says Harsent.

“I wanted to take these buildings, these public spaces and present them as personal places, everyday objects.”

Some prints frame the stages of the greatest games ever played and others are simply reminders of fields left abandoned, where the posts stand as a memoir to what once was.

“Either way, whether grand or grassroots, what they represent is the greatest game in the world.”

Throughout this captivating collection and within each frame there are moments of high drama, struggles for power, laughter and often tears.

Harsent describes football in this sense as “utterly transformative, as all great art should be”. (TO)

Until October 27, Black Eye Gallery, 3/138 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst, free, 8084 7541, blackeyegallery.com.au