Women play football, not women's football.

FC United Of Manchester Womens

MMU Football Womens Team

QPR ( Queer Park Rangers )

Zine

Women play football, not women's football documents the experiences of women footballers and teams across Manchester. Spending time with the participating teams, and building connections with the squads, photographer Ellie Wright attended games and training sessions, photographing the footballers on and off the pitch to capture their experiences.

The exhibited work, a series of wall-mounted prints, brings attention to the athleticism of the players whilst anonymising them and the blurred lines of the game. Alongside this, a zine, ‘She Plays’ contains significant quotes concerning the experiences of athletes, industry professionals and teams such as FC United of Manchester Women, MMU Women’s Football team and Queer Park Rangers who all play in Greater Manchester.

The project aims to showcase the diversity within the game, and the passion and commitment displayed by women footballers at different levels of the sport, acknowledging the important contributions made by women to a historically male-dominated sport.