REGINA – A woman from Montreal is so passionate about the Canadian Football League, she sold her condo and most of her worldly possessions to document its teams and fans.
Johany Jutras is travelling across Canada to every CFL stadium and taking thousands of pictures along the way, in hopes of completing a photo book for the Grey Cup.
“I want to show the beauty of the league, the beauty of this sport, the beauty of our country to everybody that doesn’t know a lot about it,” said Jutras.
She adds she wants to help the average fan learn more about the league and even other fans.
“The fans are there, they cheer for the team every game. Even if they lose, even if it rains, they’re there.”
She started her trip July 14th in Montreal and is slowly making her way across the country, documenting the culture and tradition surrounding each team.
“When I arrived in Ottawa, which is a new team, three-years-old, they already have traditions. That’s crazy! I was amazed by that,” she said.
Jutras swears she doesn’t have a favourite team, but…”If I lived here in Saskatchewan I would cheer for the Roughriders.”
While she’s staying in Regina, Jutras is trying to wrap her head around the crazy things Rider fans do.
“Here it’s the watermelon. I still have to dig to understand this tradition. I heard it’s about alcohol…that’s all I’ll say,” she said.
So far, she’s been invited to numerous tailgate parties and heard stories from all kinds of fans. Jutras estimates she’s received 50 emails here, far more than in other cities.
“All I can say is, here, they’re very passionate about the Riders.”
But to make it onto one of her 10 pages about Saskatchewan’s team, you’ll need to stand out.
“I need the fans to be original and creative. If you wear a white shirt and a red cap you might not be in the book.”
Halfway through her trip, she’s already filled a two terabyte hard-drive by snapping thousands of shots.
At practice on Thursday, the Riders were goofing around, mugging for her camera.
“They really like the camera here,” she laughed.
Management has been supportive of her project, even helping deck her out in a Riders pullover.
“They go, ‘Hey! Come in the merch store, choose a shirt that you like. It’s on us.’ I love when teams support me,” she said.
Jutras plans to be at Saturday’s game against the Calgary Stampeders.
At the end of her trip, she will be selling photo books just in time for the Grey Cup, hoping to recoup some of her travel costs.
“A good photo is a photo that doesn’t need a caption. I try to tell the story through one photo at a time.”
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