Artsakh

Founded in 2013 CONIFA is a football tournament that represents the unrecognised nations, de-facto states and minority peoples from the sports isolated territories of the world. In June 2019 CONIFA held their biennial European championship, hosted this year in Nagorno-Karabakh, otherwise known as The Republic of Artsakh - A "red zone" territory inside Azerbaijani borders entirely controlled by the Armenian Military. It makes perfect sense for a non nation to host an international football tournament made up of teams from contested territories and de-facto states of the world, so in the summer of 2019 eight teams travelled from all corners of Europe to compete on the global stage at the CONIFA European Cup. Countries such as Chameria, South Ossetia and Sapmi might be difficult to find on a map, but for the players competing to raise the trophy their existence is of no dispute. In photographing "Artsakh" I wanted to portray how the tournament differs from the glamour of its FIFA equivalent, whilst at the same time looking at what it means to be represented in an arena where these people and their nations are not only recognised, but celebrated.