“The best asset of Bradford is its people – real, authentic people [and] Sunday league football represents that in a way.”

John Bolloten has spent decades photographing working-class communities, both in the city where he has lived for 43 years and around the world. His most recent endeavour is both named and based on grassroots principles.

Despite photographing heroin and crack cocaine users, football hooligans in Eastern Europe, and bare-knuckle fights, he says his time with Bradford Sunday league team Red Lion FC produced some of his “roughest and rawest” photography to date.

Bolloten spent two years photographing the “notorious” side affiliated to the same-named tavern on Manchester Road, which was made up of players primarily from the BD6 and BD12 regions, which included localities such as Wibsey and Wyke.

“Red Lion did have a reputation, and at one point they were suspended from the league for six weeks,” he recalls from the comfort of his home, which is not far from where the team played their home games at Emsley Rec, as it is called locally.

Sunday league football often lacks the discipline of the elite game due to its working-class ethos. However, it is equally passionate and theatrical.

“It’s not uncommon for arguments to break out, or worse.”

Bolloten, a former substance abuse worker for Bradford Council, set out to portray that emotion and drama via his unvarnished vision.

“It was very important to me not just to make propaganda or something that was sanitised, I wanted to show it as it really is,” he told reporters.

According to Bolloten, the images, which will appear in an 88-page book issued next month, are a reflection of working-class culture rather than just football.

“I’m interested in real, ordinary people,” said the photographer.

“When I’m not working on particular projects you will often just find me walking about Bradford or Bradford city centre just documenting life as it is.”

“Bradford has so many great things, so much about it,” says Bolloten, who named his book Ciggies, Spliffs, and Footie after the “Sunday league breakfast.”

“[But] the best asset of Bradford is its people – real, authentic people.”

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