Marge Bradshaw: Level Playing Field at Williamson Art Gallery
Marge Bradshaw’s Level Playing Field is a powerful and timely exhibition of portraits and stories from Liverpool Trans and Enby FC.
The exhibition combines documentary and portrait photography with text, capturing not just the players’ faces, but their voices, their reasons for showing up, and the freedom they find on the pitch.
Its power lay in how ordinary it was: a group of people coming together simply to play football, to be in community, to belong.
Bradshaw joined the team over a series of cold winter evenings in December 2024, not as an outsider looking in, but by lacing up her boots and joining training sessions. This collaborative approach comes through in every image. There's a warmth and care here that resists sensationalism — these are just people who want to play football. That’s it.
As the club’s coach Kat (they/them) puts it:
“We don’t stop loving football when we transition or leave education – there just isn’t a space for us to rekindle it. That’s why this club is so important – we can exist, make friends, move our bodies and ultimately reignite our passion for football which we might not have felt safe enough to explore before.”
Each portrait is paired with a quote from the featured player — a simple but effective device that centres their voices and reminds us this isn't abstract politics, it’s about lived experience.
Kay (she/her):
"It’s taken years for lots of us to feel comfortable enough kicking a ball again as part of a team. Society often fetishises or objectifies trans bodies… It’s important for people to understand that we can actually do things with our bodies (tackle, dribble, shoot) rather than just be objects of moral panic and scrutiny.”
Bindz (they/them):
“There’s something very special, important and political about being part of this team… The best thing about training is that it’s not about winning, or scoring, or being good: it’s about being together… But most importantly, it’s about having fun and being free.”
Robin (she/her):
“Football’s a very masculine part of me, and I’ve previously found it hard to justify that with my transness and femininity… Playing with Liverpool Trans and Enby FC has fixed that for me… It gives me a space where I can be entirely myself.”
Alongside the portraits and quotes are a series of abstract, painterly photographs created using a slow shutter speed. This was a deliberate choice by Bradshaw to reflect both the motion and emotion of the game and the privacy of certain players. “Not all of the players wanted to be identifiable,” she explains, “so I decided to include some slow shutter speed photography… The result you get from this technique was also intended to be a nod back to Lowry’s 1953 Going to the Match, which inspired this commission.” These images sit in conversation with the more traditional portrait and documentary work, broadening the emotional and visual landscape of the exhibition.
At a time when trans people — especially in sport — are subject to relentless public scrutiny and manufactured moral panic, this exhibition is a breath of fresh air. It offers a different lens: one of normality, joy, solidarity, and care.
As Rory (he/him) puts it:
"We are just normal people. We live next door to you, we're standing next to you in a supermarket queue. You walk past us on the street every day and mostly have no clue. Please don’t believe the transphobic media onslaught about us – we just want the right to live happy and private lives. And play a bit of footie!"
Marge Bradshaw’s work with Liverpool Trans and Enby FC is a brilliant example of socially engaged photography done right. It documents something quietly revolutionary: trans joy, resilience, and belonging, captured on a cold football pitch in Liverpool.
Marge Bradshaw: Level Playing Field is on display at Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead, until 28th June. See more of Marge’s work and more images from this exhibition here.