Feyenoord: Legion. Rotterdam fan culture in black and white.

Words: Martin @feyenart

Images: Martin @feyenart

Martin aka @feyenart is creating an intimate black-and-white photographic portrait of Het Legioen — the legendary collective name for the supporters of Feyenoord.

The story of Het Legioen dates back to 1963, when Feyenoord travelled to Lisbon to face Benfica in the European Cup.

Thousands of supporters from Rotterdam made the journey, with many crossing the sea aboard several boats bound for Portugal.

It was an extraordinary display of loyalty and devotion, and it marked the beginning of a name and a reputation that would become inseparable from Feyenoord: Het Legioen.

More than six decades later, that spirit remains unmistakably alive.

Feyenoord supporters are renowned throughout the Netherlands for their loyalty, passion and unwavering commitment to their club.

On match-days, De Kuip becomes more than a football stadium. It becomes a place where identity, emotion and belonging come together.

The atmosphere created by its supporters is legendary — celebrated, feared and impossible to ignore.

Feyenoord may not have matched the domestic success of rivals Ajax and PSV over the decades, but the devotion of its supporters has remained remarkably constant.

Trophies come and go. Players change. Managers leave. Generations pass. Yet the connection between Feyenoord and its supporters endures.

It is this contemporary Legioen that he has set out to document.

The project began in 2023, during Feyenoord's most recent championship.

Martin started photographing the supporters with the thought that it might be quite some time before the club would celebrate another major title.

Rather than focusing on the players, the matches or the trophies, he turned his camera towards the people who form the beating heart of Feyenoord.

His photographs portray Het Legioen in all its different forms. Young and old. Men and women. Families and lifelong friends. Supporters from towns and villages across the Netherlands, alongside the most devoted and uncompromising fans behind the goals.

Together, these images reveal a remarkably diverse community united by one common bond: Feyenoord.

Shot entirely in black and white, the photographs strip away the distractions of colour and place the emphasis on faces, gestures, expressions and atmosphere.

Light and shadow become part of the story. The images capture anticipation, tension, celebration, frustration and moments of pure joy. They document the rituals of match-day, the friendships formed in the stands and the extraordinary emotional connection between supporter and club.

But this project is more than a portrait of a football fanbase.

At its heart lies a question: what is it that makes Feyenoord supporters different?

Is it the history of the club? The character of Rotterdam? The experience of standing shoulder to shoulder in De Kuip?

The traditions passed from parents to children? Or is it something less tangible — a shared identity that exists beyond results, league tables and trophies?

Martin does not attempt to answer that question. Instead, he observes. He listens. He photographs. His images invite the viewer to look beyond the spectacle of football and discover the people who give the club its soul.

That personal connection is an important part of the project. Martin is not an outsider looking in. He is a passionate Feyenoord supporter himself, and his photographs are therefore born from a genuine understanding of what it means to belong to Het Legioen.

The camera becomes not merely an instrument for observation, but a way of preserving a world of which he is also a part.

The result is intended as more than a collection of football photographs. It is a visual time capsule: a portrait of Het Legioen as it exists today, before the next generation inevitably reshapes it.

Planned for publication in spring 2027 by a Rotterdam-based publisher, the book will bring together years of observations and encounters, creating an enduring document of one of football's most distinctive supporter cultures.

Diverse yet united. Individual yet collective. Raw, emotional and uncompromising — but above all, deeply loyal.

This is Feyenoord through the eyes of its people.

This is Het Legioen.