leah lombardi
Manchester, England
I’m a photographer based in Manchester, UK.
I’ve always used film in my work and started combining my love of photography and film while I was studying for my Masters in photography, starting a project where I documented Manchester City for one of my assignments.
After finishing my MA, I’ve worked commercially in photography across fashion, live music and football. I also worked for Manchester City photographing games for the women’s team.
Currently I’m working on a project called Untitled Football Project where I’m aiming to document as many football grounds as possible on film. A lot of my work explores the concepts of space, place and identity - concepts that I find particularly interesting in football.
My love of football started with Marseille, and after moving to Manchester 10 years ago I’ve had a season ticket to Manchester City. I’ve been really lucky to see a club on the rise of rapid success on and off the field and to see the issues it brings up of maintaining the culture and history at the heart of the club and city.
I love shooting film - it has a special quality and captures a certain feel that I don’t think I could emulate in my digital work. I love the grain and the fact you need to work without being able to review, critique and fixate on what you’ve just photographed - you just have to shoot.
