Stade — nuit de Ligue des Champions, 2005

A scanned photograph placed on a dusty cardboard box lid with scuffed edges, the photo filling nearly the entire frame with only a thin natural border visible on all sides. The photograph depicts: Grungy analog flash photo, Kodak FunSaver disposable camera, circa 2005. Two friends — a young person with short dark hair and warm brown skin, and a stocky white guy with a buzzcut and patchy stubble, face painted in club colors, wearing a replica home jersey two sizes too big — squeezed together in a packed football stadium stand during a Champions League night match. Both wearing matching red home jerseys with Carlsberg sponsor and Reebok logo, fabric slightly too big. The stocky guy's arm around the young person's shoulder, both grinning wide. Behind them, thousands of fans — a wall of red scarves raised above heads, mouths open mid-chant. A red flare burns to the left, casting warm orange smoke haze drifting across the frame. The flash blows out their faces and the scarf of the fan directly behind, everything beyond three rows falls into murky silhouettes and raised fists. Heavy film grain, slight yellow-green color shift, red-eye on the young person, motion blur on a jumping fan to the right. The photo is slightly tilted. Natural skin texture with subtle pores and micro-imperfections, organic asymmetry in features. --ar 4:5