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Snapshots are on the ground reports from our editorial department, field notes offering context, perspective, and a sharp lens on the cultures shaping the game.
Editorials
Members
Think Tank
Image Licensing
About
Snapshots are on the ground reports from our editorial department, field notes offering context, perspective, and a sharp lens on the cultures shaping the game.
Like Emeralds, Football in Zambia is Drawn to the Light
PHOTOGRAPHY Elsom
April 2026
From daily routines to travelling work life, while on the road, he has gained insights on other ways of living by bringing his camera to document as he goes. “There’s a multitude of variety in life, and there is not one correct path," Will says.
But in most places he has gone, as if home follows him everywhere he goes, there has typically been a round ball that rolls into his periphery, and while he’s not a huge fan of the sport himself, football has become a door into connecting with others around the world, from remote regions to big cities.
Born in Oxford, UK, throughout his life, Will has certainly been no stranger to the ways football can build community. Specifically, living in the football-adoring city of London, the peoples’ devotion to the sport is clear as day. At pubs, he finds himself explaining his lack of allegiance to certain clubs and general lack of interest in the game play itself. While traveling, when people hear his accent, English Premier League becomes the topic, and connection is built by attempting to discuss the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City through the verbal barriers; football becomes the universal language.
Even in the topographically-rich Indonesia, on a lone patch of spare ground, Will once witnessed two locals make a chasm on a vertical structure into their makeshift Mountain pitch. When he came across them, all he had to do was ask to join in and suddenly this small group welcomed him in without a moment of hesitation.
The community, the conversation starters: these are the parts of football that captivate Will. And while on a late-summer trip to Zambia in 2019 for a photography assignment, Will was reminded of how the sport translates to the world.
“It felt really remote,” Will tells me about his first impressions of his entry into the Kafuba Area, Zambia, the region in which he was on assignment to shoot for British Airways in-flight magazine. Tucked in the southern part of Zambia’s copper belt and far away from nearby towns, Will was sent to explore and photograph Zambia’s Kagem Emerald Mine, one of the world’s largest emerald reserves, producing 37 million carrots — a quarter of the global output — of the rare gemstone yearly.
The gigantic pit’s structure allowed Will and the team to avoid going fully underground, removing any feelings of claustrophobia — that is besides the sweltering heat clinging to their bodies. As the group made their descent into the pit, intricate, ancient layers of sediment surrounded them. Zambia has been known to produce emeralds since the late 1920s, and the Kagem Emerald Mine has been functioning for nearly 30 years; however, the gemstone, which develops its famous green hue from a mixture of chromium and vanadium, was formed in the region millions of years ago. According to Gemfields, when an emerald is recovered at Kagem, “it is the first time that light has ever passed through the crystal, bringing it to life after half a billion years in darkness.”
“It was sort of like going back in time when you think of the geology aspect,” Will said, describing his initial thoughts when seeing the mine for the first time. “You've got this really interesting link to 1000s of years ago under many layers of land.”
Will witnessed scattered mine workers equipped with special tools who were searching by hand through areas which display emerald formations conjoined by the combination of pegmatite and metamorphic rock. Once the men on ground found clues of the precious material, the discovered rocks were brought to a conveyor belt where, again, more specialists sifted through the debris by hand to tediously separate emeralds from their geometric shelling.
On the belt, rocks of all sizes were pushed through to the men who stood in a meditative state, Will recalled. You could hear a pin drop in the quiet room where the men refined the material that, hopefully, withheld the precious emeralds. Will, with his narrowed focus on capturing the photos, closely mirrored the men doing their singular and indispensable job of sorting, shaping and discovering.
Throughout his time in the mine, intensive security checked every single part of Will’s immediate existence — camera bags, boots, clothing — to ensure no precious gem would be or was taken.
In the distance, marked by a colorful sunset breaking through the hazy air created by the nearby copper mines and bright lights, a miner named Arthur was performing intricate tricks in a flat area that was designated for football. Around him, a few other mine workers cheered him on while catching up after a long day of work. Like a magnetic force, Will was pulled to the scene where he set out to learn more about the Zambian men who welcomed him immediately.
Though working in this particular area of Zambia, Will discovered that many of the men do not live there; instead, they’re transported via bus from other areas of Zambia to pursue working in the mine. 10 meters from the pitch, a circular formation of housing sat where the men stay while in town to work — they arrive as strangers, mingle as coworkers and break the ice as footballers. While there were other amenities for the men, such as a dining hall and gym, it seemed to Will that football took center stage. When the men finished their shifts, they’d go into their living quarters to freshen up, change into football attire and get the night started: first beginning with dynamic stretches led by Arthur.
As the men ran up and down the pitch, football took form as a kind of creativity not seen while in the mining facility. After a workday structured by hours on their feet and repetitive, at times monotonous, shifts of searching for gemstones, playing football with one another allowed the men to give back to their tired bodies and share bits and pieces of their home with one another through their style of play. On the clock, the men were zoned into their daytime craft, while at night, the men were able to freely express themselves with a ball at their feet, revealing a unique side of this group to Will.
As the clock approached dinner, it was time for Will to reconnect with his team and turn his back to this newfound football community, which proved to be one of the hardest parts of the work trip. Camera in hand, the photographer walked away after exchanging contact information with Arthur and threw up his hand to wave goodbye— the men, who treated Will with nothing but friendliness during the dusk encounter, waved right back.