'Turf and White Line' by Ben Oldham : Art and Illustration : Soccer Bible

Photographer Ben Oldham captures football moments in beautiful fashion having created 'Turf and White Line'.

Ever in search for the perfect pitchside shot, Ben has the ability to capture a moment of football brilliance while sensing you could hear a pin drop from his seat at The Ethiad.

A Manchester City season ticket holder, we spoke to Ben to get under the hood of the project.

Can you give us a bit of background about yourself and what Turf and White Line is?

I'm a Graphic Designer, Photographer and Manchester City season ticket holder. I'm the creator of a new football photography project 'Turf & White Line', which is continuous body of work that aims to document the beautiful game from the fans perspective.



What inspired the project?

I suppose a mutual love of football and photography.

Going to the football is exciting for any fan, no matter who you support, it's more than just about the actual match itself. It's as much about the pre-game chat and the post-match debate as it is it about the 90 minutes of play. You'll watch replay after replay of your #9 smashing in a 90th minute winner just to relive your teams moment of glory. Whatever the situation I suppose it's all a way of making the moment last longer, prolonging the excitement to see you through to the next game.

For me catching a fleeting moment that makes the game stand still is my way of doing the same thing. Capturing a perfect shot amongst the pace of the game gives you the same feeling as scoring a worldie for your Sunday League side and using a forum like @turfandwhiteline to share that moment extends the event much further than the final whistle.



If that's not inspiration enough for the project then I always like to think I'd much rather be editing photographs post-match than listening to Jamie Carragher talking nonsense with Graeme Souness sat next to him being inexplicably angry about absolutely everything.

I think that's what it's all about anyway...Memories, anti-punditry and exercising both my hobbies all at once.



Where do you want to take Turf & White Line?

I'd hate for Turf & White Line to become a feed of exclusively Manchester City related posts but obviously there are only so many games I can get to myself. I do plan to get to other local lower league sides throughout next season but there are hundreds of creative football fans to be discovered about the net and I would love nothing more than for the project to become a collaborative body of work. If we could have people submitting work via Instagram then the project will already have been a success.

You can get involved by following Turf & White Line here.