Football stadiums - fields of dreams, palaces of passion. Vast, multi-million-pound arenas, part architecture, part emotion.
You never forget your first visit, the crowd, the roar, the smell of pies and turf, the floodlights, and that first glimpse of the pitch as you emerge into the bowl of anticipation.

But before all that, there’s the turnstile.

The overlooked gateway. Often grimy, narrow, anonymous. But photographers know, doors and windows hold mystery. A battered door can open to beauty, a dusty window may hint at lives inside.

A turnstile is no different, an unremarkable portal to the extraordinary. Drama, joy, heartbreak, celebration.

Sometimes they’re charming in their age and decay, sometimes hidden behind slick, modern steel. Always, they’re the first impression, the first contact between fan and stadium. What happens when we strip away the colour, the noise, the match-day energy? Do these gateways still reflect the identity of the ground?
Would you even recognise your team’s?

The Art of The Turnstile isolates turnstiles from stadiums around the world.

Photographed in silence, often on non-match days, without commentary or context.
Just form, shadow, and suggestion.

Each image is titled only with the name of the stadium at the time of the visit, many now reduced to sponsor names.

Still, the turnstiles remain. The quiet sentinels of the spectacle to come, thresholds of passion.

Over 100 stadiums and more being added every week.

Search for your home stadium, or your favourite from around the world via the search boxes throughout the site.

Have we not visited yet? Let us know and we’ll make sure it’s on the list.

Adam Winfield is a UK based commercial photographer & marketer at Through the Lens.

The Art of the Turnstile combines his passion for visual story telling, architecture & football. Adam sees interest and beauty in the mundane and unremarkable, even the most run-down turnstile holds the keys to a story beyond.

Ben Winfield has a passion for european football and a mission to visit as many football stadiums as possible. Along the way Ben contributes to The Art of the Turnstile, with photographs and blogs.