The extremely chic Vice magazine was in Manchester today, capturing a photo shoot featuring Umbro gear as you might not have seen it before. Taking place in and around Umbro’s design studio in the Northern Quarter, the shoot will feature in a forthcoming issue of Vice, but you can see a couple of behind the scenes sneak peaks here, along with a quick interview with the photographer, Elizabeth Angela Johnson. If you’d like to see more of her photography, take a look here.

Why have you come up to see Umbro today?

‘Well I’ve come up here from Vice magazine – we heard about Umbro refreshing and reinvigorating their brand, and they’re also got lots of interesting designers on their design team, so we thought we’d like to do a photo shoot that celebrates Umbro here in Manchester, and celebrates their heritage, but also incorporates interesting new designers into their work.’

What impression did you have of Umbro beforehand?

‘To be honest, I didn’t really know that much about Umbro; it wasn’t particularly on my radar. But since then, I’ve realised that it’s got such a massive heritage, and I’ve just been looking at some of the vintage items, they’re amazing. It’s got such a strong identity: for me it seems that Umbro IS football.’

What do you aim to do here in Manchester today?

‘I really like the way that Manchester has all these echoes of its past in the architecture, you can see all these ghostly buildings which all have an amazing attention to detail. So, I want to get this really new, fresh, modern Umbro stuff on young, exciting people, and then marry that with the Manchester of the past, so you have the clash of the two. We’ve got really forward thinking design, but also showing where that’s come from.’

As a photographer, is this different to what you normally do?

‘It is different to what I normally do – there’s just so much more to consider. Normally I’m just left to my own devices, but here there’s lots of people to work with, so its exciting in that sense.’

How did you get into photography?

‘I was initially drawn to photography through war reportage, seeing how a photo could be the most powerful way to draw people into a story. It’s very different to what I’m doing now, but I’ve always enjoyed fashion as well, and I enjoy creating images that people will find beautiful.’