Nepstadion

Nepstadion was my final major project at university in Bath. A joint piece of work with Benjamin Hayward, the extra-large-format book is a collection of our photographs from Budapest, taken in February 2009.

On a trip to the Hungarian capital, Ben and I discovered the epic ‘People’s Stadium’ which was built in 1948. By the time of our visit it was still operational but in a state of disrepair. Nevertheless it was an imposing piece of architecture which we relished photographing.

On our return to the UK we set about making a photo book, and we felt the scale of this Soviet concrete behemoth demanded a suitably large format. The finished book is 550 x 700mm. To achieve this, the photographs were printed as black & white halftones on an architectural plotter, which we then French folded and hand-stitched.

The red typography was screen printed by hand over the top – the abstract phrases reminisce about some of the stadium’s glory days, such as when Hungary beat England 7-1 in 1954. We drew a bespoke typeface for the project, inspired by the cast-concrete lettering at the stadium.

See the full photographic series here.