Nostalgia as Portsmouth Football Club's heritage celebrated with special photographic exhibition

Portsmouth Football Club’s photographic heritage is to be celebrated at a special exhibition at the University of Portsmouth in August in what will be the closing event of the club’s 125th anniversary season.

Almost 100 photographs will be on display at the Ravelin Sports Centre in Cambridge Road from Monday, August 5 until Sunday, August 18 between 10:30am and 6:00pm. Proceeds of the sale of the catalogue will go to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

Entitled ‘125 – Celebrating Portsmouth FC in Photographs’, the exhibition will feature a retrospective of the late Pete Blackman, specially commissioned images by renowned documentary photographer Stuart Roy Clarke, action shots from last season by club photographer Jason Brown and a selection of images from the archive, celebrating the club’s 125 seasons. Curated by Colin Farmery, chair of the club’s 125 steering committee, he feels the event is a fitting end to the year.

Colin said: “In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined the 125th anniversary season would have turned out so well. For the men’s and women’s teams to win their respective championships, made the 2023/24 season one of the most memorable in the club’s history.

“At the heart of the exhibition though is the work of Pete Blackman, who sadly died last October, but who I had approached last summer to curate a selection of his work spanning more than 15 years.

“Pete had been taking photographs at Fratton Park almost right up to his untimely death and he has a terrific back catalogue to share. Working with his family and friends, I am delighted we were still able to put together a collection of 32 of his images which capture his fan-focused perspective of his beloved club and I am sure he would have been delighted at the outcome.

“We are fortunate at Pompey that one of our early directors, Stephen Cribb, was a photographer so the first 25 years or so of the club are well documented. Some of his images are there, as well as more recent work of the likes of Murray Sanders, Steve Reid, and Joe Pepler.

“Put together, these images really do both the success and the culture of the club justice. It is a fitting end to the 125 years and I hope people come along and also buy the catalogue, which will be raising money for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation in Pete’s memory.”

Priced at £5, the 60-page catalogue features all the photographs in the exhibition, plus messages from Portsmouth FC chairman Michael Eisner and Pompey Supporters’ Trust Board Member Ashley Brown. It can be purchased from the shop at the Portsmouth Museum & Art Gallery in Cambridge Road or online at the Pompey Memorabilia Store from Tuesday, August 6.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.