I’ve always felt that images transport me to places and emotions I’ve experienced, even if I’ve never been to the place I see through them. The beauty of experiencing it imaginatively, through the eyes of others, made me want others to experience that journey from the perspective of my daily life.
Football has been, and still is, a large percentage of my time since I was a child. For me, it’s easy to feel all this that I capture as something ordinary, although I know that for many it’s an unknown point of view. I normalized what once thrilled me, but I look at the photos and I feel again the smell of cut grass before going out to play, the silence in the stands of our stadium after a match, the music playing at a celebration or on bus journeys, the excitement of putting on a new jersey for the first time…
Everything that moves me in life is emotional, although I love rationality. I work on it and enjoy it. But without a doubt, the driving force behind everything is when I truly feel. When I enter that process, that’s when I take out my camera and shoot. In that state, I see something that makes me feel, and that’s why I photograph it with whatever I have on me. It’s usually my phone, although it’s rare for me not to have a camera in my bag or backpack. Many of these daily images are lost because I’m simply enjoying the moment and don’t have the serenity to stop and shoot, but I also believe that’s the beauty of it—that many evaporate and remain in our minds and hearts. Although I admit I later regret not having immortalized that moment. And I like to share them, even though it makes me a little shy.
I feel that seeing the inner workings of a locker room, plane trips, my teammates’ looks on the bus, or moments on the field before matches must seem special from the outside. For us, it’s routine, our relationships with our people, the collective feeling, and individual growth within a group. I like to look at my photographs after some time and imagine what attracted me to shoot with my camera at that moment. Generally, they were moments of joy or excitement that moved me towards a common goal. I understand life from a group perspective, whether in family, as a couple, in a team, or as a society. And I like it that way.
From the first page, in Borja’s words: “Balaídos Stadium, the old scoreboard stand. Pitch preparation for the 24/25 season. Fon García, the players’ trusted man. But above all, my friend, and a great DJ. Vlado Gudelj, team delegate and Celta legend. My first trip with the team for a pre-season training camp in England, 24/25 season. The legendary Kenilworth Road stadium of Luton Town FC; it was the last match of my first pre-season. Ilaix Moriba’s hairstyles are always a surprise, and they have a lot of style. I suppose that woman’s name is Gloria, a West Ham United fan; we were all on our way to the London Olympic Stadium for another friendly. Óscar Mingueza, half-asleep, at the Afouteza sports city. Iago Aspas putting on the beautiful Oliveira jersey. And my self-portrait, on the way back to Vigo after our qualification for the Europa League in May 2025. I was clearly ready to celebrate.”
Borja Iglesias (Santiago de Compostela, 1993) is a forward for RC Celta de Vigo and one of the most charismatic footballers in Spain, but also a photography enthusiast. He took and analog-developed all these images between 2024 and 2025 with a Leica M6 and a Contax T2.
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