Liam decided to photograph the footballs, framing the project as a response to the way in which many contemporary artists choose to give found objects, naked, unadulterated and resolutely ordinary, the status of an art work. Instead Liam began to think about how to portray their histories, the journey from being a new present for a child, or pristine before the big match, to the bruised and battered state, ripped at the seams and deflated, in which they were discarded. Liam has returned to them back their character, their personalities and individual histories.

Shot under the studio lighting of the celebrity portrait, the balls take on a new and surreal appearance, revealing touching and often comic physiognomies.