When tens of thousands of soccer fans pour into Snapdragon Stadium on match day, most of them come to watch the game. Israel Castillo comes for the crowd.
Castillo’s photo series, “Among the Supporters,” now entering its second season alongside San Diego FC, is a document of shared witnessing – the cheers, the beers and a city that has fully united around its young franchise.
“I capture how a sport can bring people together,” Castillo said. “It’s a precious thing.”
While most photographers huddle along the sidelines with long lenses trained on the pitch, the San Diego-based photographer moves through the stands.
“To be in the trenches with the crowd is completely different,” Castillo said.
Born and raised in San Diego, Castillo grew up in Linda Vista and now lives in Normal Heights with his wife and daughters. He has been a soccer fan his whole life, playing competitively as a youth on a traveling team where a coach helped develop what he describes as a powerful, accurate left foot.
When the announcement came that San Diego would get its own Major League Soccer club, he knew immediately he had to be there and not just as a fan.
Castillo started simply, walking the exterior of the stadium with a digital camera during that inaugural February 2025 match, documenting tailgaters and the energy building outside. By the next game, he had a sharper vision: he asked strangers if he could take their portrait. Not long after, he earned a bona fide press credential.
The San Diego native alternates between film and digital depending on where he is and what he’s after. Outside the stadium, Castillo often reaches for his film camera, producing intentionally stripped-down black-and-white portraits that remove the visual noise of team colors and spectacle, focusing entirely on the people.
Inside the stadium, Castillo switches to digital, capturing color images: a fan in a luchador mask, a group of women singing themselves hoarse, a sold-out crowd in a single wide frame he likens to “Where’s Waldo” – thousands of faces, reacting differently to the same beat.
“I’m looking for people lost in the moment,” he said. “You don’t want to exploit. You’re there to document. I’m just showing and telling supporters’ stories through my eyes.”
Fan hamming it up for a portrait. (Photo by Israel Castillo) 
A young supporter gets a better view atop shoulders. (Photo by Israel Castillo) 
A family of fans amped outside the match. (Photo by Israel Castillo) 
A San Diego FC fan portrait. (Photo by Israel Castillo) 
Photographer, San Diego native and SDFC supporter Israel Castillo. (Photo by Natasha Kozlova)
What makes the SDFC fanbase particularly compelling to document is the diversity Castillo encounters across the parking lot.
“You have one section of people who park their Ferraris and Porsches on the grass with their white wine and charcuterie boards. On the other side, it’s a dirt parking lot with people barbecuing – a very family-friendly environment,” Castillo said. “And the supporter section, that’s where the rowdies go. They chant through the whole game.”
The club draws a deeply cross-cultural crowd, fueled in part by the city’s proximity to Mexico and a regional soccer tradition that runs on both sides of the border. The supporter section pulses with chants borrowed from Liga MX culture, and Castillo’s portraits reflect a city that doesn’t look like any other MLS market.
SDFC’s inaugural season gave Castillo’s subjects plenty to cheer about. The club finished as the top seed in the Western Conference and set expansion records for most points and most wins. One of his favorite frames came after a curving goal from right winger Anders Dreyer.
“I looked up and just started shooting. Beer was flying everywhere,” Castillo said.
He shares the work on Instagram, tagging the club, the stadium, and, when possible, the fans themselves. The account has grown to nearly 600 followers without promotion, largely through subjects sharing their own portraits on social media.
“I’m surprised how fast this has caught on,” Castillo said.
The soccer series runs parallel to Castillo’s “Portraits on Kettner,” a six-year film project shot on Kettner Boulevard in Little Italy. Born out of his years working nearby at Chrome Digital, a print lab, the series has grown into an expansive document of the unique people he meets in the neighborhood.
“Portraits on Kettner” is nearing its final stretch, with only a few subjects remaining, while his SDFC fan series is just getting started. Castillo hopes to compile both into books and find a local publisher willing to bring them to life.
For now, film loaded, he’ll take his place Sunday among the supporters.
