Local photographer Tom Harrison’s photo of Malkeet Singh, a referee on the Hackney Marshes, has been selected for a Portrait of Britain award.
Braving all weathers, subject to abuse week in, week out, referees are the “unsung heroes of grassroots football”, according to Harrison.
Singh had refereed on the Marshes for more than ten years, after growing up playing and coaching there almost every weekend. He told Love Hackney that his family is “so proud” to see him representing the local Sikh and Punjabi community.
Harrison has played football all his life and calls the game a “pillar of society”. He took the photo of Malkeet as part of a series on Hackney referees.
The photos were shot on the marshes rather than in-studio, which Harrison said was “quite stressful but quite good fun”. He made sure the final images were “not too contrived” and that the referees were “wearing exactly what they would be wearing” for any other game.
Harrison added: “We just went down one week while they were refereeing and had to grab the refs for five minutes between games. It was quite run and gun, but it got the whole energy of the marshes.
“I have been a photographer for ten to twelve years now, and what photography does do is it gives you a very good excuse to introduce yourself to interesting people.”
Harrison has built a business “shooting advertorial work to survive”. On the side, he “shoots personal portraits of people who are passionate about doing things they love”.
He recently completed a project on cold water swimmers, which will go on display at Photofusion in Brixton.
The full series of the Marshes’ referees is displayed in Homerton Library.
Bethan Moss is Hackney Post's beat reporter for Homerton and a freelance journalist. She is studying for an MA in Newspaper Journalism at City, University of London and was formerly Editor-in-Chief of Varsity, the University of Cambridge's only independent newspaper.