One of our favourite photographers and friend of Cult Kits, Kane Hulse as set off once again on a tour of one of Europe's historic clubs. The results are unsurprisingly glorious and make the viewer feel like they're with him as he captures the ground and supporters on match day.

In a whistle-stop tour, London based photographer Kane Hulse, once again has looked to explore more journal like photography from a match day. This time it was Feyenoord, where fans, burger vans, flags and of course the stadium were all shot.

Just as visits to Arsenal and Marseilles have proven what Kane captured has you almost reaching into his pictures and tasting the fried onions.

We caught up the Kane for a quick run down of his visit and ask how good the chips and beer were!

 

Cult Kits: How did the trip come about?

Kane Hulse: I’m a massive Dirk Kuyt fan - just playing but Rotterdam had been on the radar and Feyenoord has a special appeal, port cities breed a different type of football club and I knew the fan base would be emotionally involved with the club. When I started talking about it I had a lot of people pop up with links to fans and realised they had a punchy fan base. Normally it’s a fan base or a player that’s associated with the club that appeals and for this one it was Robin Van Persie and his Feyenoord association that appealed. I don’t respect that Man United switch but as a player he was magic and this is where he honed that.

CK: How long were you there for?

KH: I was there for a long weekend and went to the stadium the day before the match to capture it empty and then on Sunday night we had an anomaly of three hours of sun during the match. It rained for the whole trip apart form that few hours so I was blessed for that. It was Arne’s Slot penultimate game before Liverpool and a section had been sectioned off in their upcoming last home match so there was a serenading of him from the Feijenoorders and a party vibe even though technically it was a dead rubber league wise. There were also a few Liverpool fans in shirts who had come over purely for this match which I rated. 

 

"The shirt game was strong, I clocked a lot of the older Kappa pieces and there was some beautiful Adidas / Opel combo shirts too on match day. The old boys tended to have the best gear and merch with their baseball caps and overcoats."

 

 

 

CK: Tell us briefly what you got up to?

KH: I spent a lot of time talking to people in the city about the club and trying to find out more about it, there’s not much external online information in English when researching but you could see the Feyenoord thread through the city so I’d talk to people about it. I tried to find the more residential areas where cage football breeds the talent and went to the south of the city, I had visions of Robin Van Persie talking about developing his touch in those cages so I wanted to get to the heart of that culture. 

 

 

CK: Did you have a brief for the trip?

KH: No brief, I just want to capture football fans in a raw way - there’s so much energy generated naturally at a match that I want to share it and get that buzz whilst doing it, you get an adrenaline rush approaching and finding the flow of a match day and I love that.

CK: What were some of your favourite shirts that your saw people wearing there?

KH: The shirt game was strong, I clocked a lot of the older Kappa pieces and there was some beautiful Adidas / Opel combo shirts too on match day. The old boys tended to have the best gear and merch with their baseball caps and overcoats. The ’Stad Rotterdam Verzekeringen’ logo wins it for me when it comes down to it.

 

 

Shop ALL Feyenoord & Dutch Club shirts HERE.

CK: What were the fits like on match day?

KH: I’ll be honest there wasn’t much of the tight Kappa fits on a dutch beer belly which disappointed me but we had enough vintage pieces on show to make up for it, the hardcore fans went for the all black ultra so that was a sight all crowded up behind the goal - seats were loosely assigned so you could walk into any section you want. 

 

 

CK: Is Feyenoord a team you'd urge people to go and see?

KH: I would go for an Ajax / PSV game where the stadium is full on fire, it’s the atmosphere that gives Feyenoord appeal and this is where you’ll get it bursting out - Plus you can get to Dortmund in the same weekend which is a big appeal!

 

"Chips and Mayo with Bahn mi’s was the staple Rotterdam diet. Outside the stadium everyone picks at a cone of chips and half a litre of mayonnaise with a pint of lager which you can't argue with."

 

CK: What was the stadium and fans like?

KH: The ‘De Kuip’  was beautiful, its an old design from 1937 so felt proper old school and even though its situated next to a pretty drab shopping industrial centre once you get into the arena you feel the character, The stairs to take you up to the top feel like a cubist painting with the colours and when you get there everyone’s puffing fags and joints on the balcony. The seats are so tight you can’t let people slide through so you have to stand up on top of yours to let someone through which had its charm and for a dead rubber the fans were bouncing. Before the match they whipped out ten minutes of techno to get everyone pumped up and fair play it worked.

 

 

 

I sat next to the away fans in the upper tier who are caged in a plastic container with police inside keeping an eye, the upper tier was more chilled with families - I was touched at one point looking over and seeing at the end of the row a dad with his hand around his daughters shoulder and behind him an old Feijenoorder with his hand around his wife’s shoulder, football has its reputation but this was a tender family moment within that arena.

 

 

 

In the lower tier it was more what I expected for the course with heavy set geezers in black ultra t shirts puffing fags and crowding into their section behind the goal all standing, the Gerard Meijer stand is where it really lights up though if you can get a ticket in there. 

CK: Sample any good food?

KH: Chips and Mayo with Bahn mi’s was the staple Rotterdam diet. Outside the stadium everyone picks at a cone of chips and half a litre of mayonnaise with a pint of lager which you can't argue with.

 

 

CK: What's your biggest take away from the trip?

KH: If you want a proper old school stadium, fiery fans and can take a bit of rain then Feyenoord is the trip for you. You can walk into the stadium and stand next to the pitch if you want to so it feels like a different era to the soup bowl athletic stadiums.

 

You can view more of Kane's work here.