Abpfiff! Faces of Football

Mathias Braschler . Monika Fischer
Jun 9, 2006 – Jul 9, 2006
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk

The final whistle sounds, and it’s all over. Victory and defeat, rapture and regret; lucky breaks and missed chances. But in the faces of Ballack, Beckham, Drogba, Figo, Ronaldinho or Zidane, the match lives on. Full of emotion, their expressions reveal the eventful 90 minutes that have just passed. To create these unusual portraits, the Swiss photo artists Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer photographed thirty of the world's best footballers before a neutral backdrop immediately after the final whistle of important matches. The large-format camera they used creates portraits that are as authentic as they could possibly be: not a single drop of sweat or trace of emotion is hidden. The directness of these images makes the fascination of football visible in a totally unique way. C/O Berlin is showing these photographs to mark the 2006 World Cup, revealing football's special power to bring the most different nations together on the playing field. Football is played on every continent and by every culture. On the pitch, skin colour, religion and nationality become unimportant: all that counts is dedication and enthusiasm. The exhibition is made up of 30 large-format portraits (120 x 150 cm) with detailed information on the player and the time and place at which the photograph was taken.

Portraits were taken of: Emmanuel Adebayor, Adriano, Gerald Asamoah, Michael Ballack, DaMarcus Beasley, David Beckham, Gianluigi Buffon, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Luis Figo, Gennaro Gattuso, Alberto Gilardino, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Kaka, Frank Lampard, Shunsuke Nakamura, Pavel Nedved, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ji-sung Park, Lukas Podolski, Carles Puyol, Arjen Robben, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Andriy Shevchenko, Lilian Thuram, Fernando Torres, Zinedine Zidane. C/O Berlin presented "Abpfiff! Faces of Football" as the first venue worldwide. The exhibition was facilitated by "Littmann Kulturprojekte Basel". A book of photographs was published by Nicolai Verlag in mid-May 2006 to coincide with the exhibition. The exhibition was kindly supported by FIFA as well as by Stern, Equipe, Observer and Gazzeto dello Sport.