Tony Davis grew up on Nottingham’s Clifton Estate and began going to football matches in the early 1970s. Although born and raised in Nottingham, he supported Derby County and followed the club home and away. Football was part of his life long before photography, and when he began taking a camera to the match around 1989, he was photographing from inside a culture he loved.

Between 1989 and 2005, Davis photographed supporters and grounds across Britain, as well as at international tournaments including the World Cup in Italy, 1990. He worked from within the crowd rather than from the touchline, concentrating on the parts of a match day that seldom appeared on the back pages: away ends, streets around stadiums, police lines and pubs.

Much of the UK work was made during a decisive period for British football. Following the Taylor Report and the launch of the Premier League in 1992, terraces were converted to seating, stands were rebuilt and clubs began leaving long established grounds. Davis photographed places including the Old Den, the Baseball Ground, the Victoria Ground and Saltergate before they closed. 

In 2000–01, Davis was commissioned to photograph all 92 League grounds for an interactive installation at the new National Football Museum in Preston. The photographs brought together here are drawn from his wider football archive and concentrate on the 1990s, when the culture surrounding the game was changing as visibly as the grounds and stadiums.