First Photo Shoot at Street Wise Gym, Loughton

15thMarch2014

(Authors Own, Portraits of Boxers)

(Authors Own, Documenting Street-wise gym in Loughton)

This particular page demonstrates the images I produced on my visit to Street-Wise gym in Loughton. On arrival I aimed to only capture footage for a short film, but when I had finished up with the filming a member of the gym asked me to take a picture of him posing with a fellow fighter "Phillip Bowes" [who I filmed]. I was initially determined to produce my documentary style images in an old fahsioned, vintage gym e.g. Repton Boxing Gym in Bethnal Green, so that my compositions echoed character and history that is often associated with boxing. When I was actually there, in the thick of all the testosterone, sweat and grunts, the atmosphere alone created a perfect environment for me to shoot. This sparked a spontaneous idea so I had to think fast about the sort of outcomes I had planed, combined with having to adapt my initial ideas to suit the new location. Unprepared and not very confident I continued to take these "typical" after fight shots of some of the guys. Following on from this I asked a few more members if it would be ok for me to take some simple portraits of them. Some were confident and happy to help, while others were not so sure, but with a bit of persuasion I managed to capture some really beautiful high contrast, black and white images. The compositions are simple head shots with complementing backgrounds, which have been edited in Adobe Photoshop so that the focus is on the individual with a subtle hint of boxing in the background to confirm the meaning of the shoot. The other images have the same impression as the portraits, but unlike the portraits, these images are less contrived with no posing at all. I just observed some of the things going on in the gym, such as training, sparing, resting, equipment etc and documented it as everything was happening around me. I am really happy with both sets of imagery I have produced. Although it wasn't what I had originally set out to do, I feel that I have exceeded my first idea by creating an atmosphere of adventure, experience and history purely through the use of photography, and carefully selected compositions.  

Following on from this photo shoot was another peer crit session. This time there were different people in my group which meant I acquired different and unique responses and ideas, this is always useful to me because I think I learn best when I analyse other peoples work and vise-verse. I raised the point based upon my own work that I wasn't entirely happy about the way in which my project was moving in. I thought it was too sport based and there weren't enough conceptual, interesting, thought provoking ideas incorporated within in the work. I proposed the visualization of contrasting the conflicting practice of Dance with Boxing. Not everyone was keen on the idea, but I was given loads of great ideas that I could use in my work. For example someone suggested comparing and contrasting the different between street fighting / judo with boxing, another suggestion was child boxing / women's boxing with male boxing. I personally thought that contrasting another fight based sport or opposite sex boxing was still too sport based and this isn't what I was really aiming for. I still considered some of the ideas I was given, but im also interesting to explore the idea of dance.

(Authors Own, Documenting Street-wise gym in Loughton)

(Authors Own, Documenting Street-wise gym in Loughton)

Secondary Research - Film&Photography

7thMarch2014
After the first peer crit I managed to take a lot of useful notes and turn them into potential ideas. It was made clear to me that my starting point had not excelled quick enough and I was realistically still at my research stage. I was advised to start looking at artists and photographers that interested me, and to start watching films that were boxing related to hopefully gain ideas for interesting imagery. There were suggestions of 'The fighter' starring Christian Bale, 'When we were Kings' directed by Leon Gast. These were all fantastic suggestions, and i went home to watch some of them straight away. It took about a week in total to watch all these suggested films, some interested me more than others based on story line and plot. But the two films that had the most interest to me where the older films such as 'Rocky1', 'When we were Kings' and 'Raging Bull'. Raging Bull took a particular interest to me, due to the alternative approach to the way it was filmed. I took loads of notes during this film based mainly on camera angles, composition, portrayal of characters, contrast and fashion. These are important aspects to me because I aim to produce my own film as a final outcome, so gaining stimulating and thought-provoking ideas is really key to help me produce a successful piece.

 (Youtube, Clip from Ranging Bull)

I have recently watched the film Raging Bull which is about an emotionally self -destructive boxer's journey though life  as the violence and temper leads him to the top of the ring,  it meanwhile destroys his life outside it. Director, Scorsese made it clear during filming that he did not appreciate the traditional way in which fight films show fights from a spectators' view. He insisted that one camera operated by the Director of Photography, Michael Chapman, would be placed inside the ring and he would play the role of an opponent keeping out of the way of other fighters so that viewers could see the emotions of the fighters, including those of Jake LaMotta. I like the reasoning behind the way in which the scenes are directed but what I was mostly interested in was the extremely high contrast black and white filter the film is shot in. The really dark black shades really emphasise the harsh and gritty reality of boxing by highlighting muscle structure or wounds and darkening the brow area creating a really intense gaze. I took loads of notes about camera angle, personas, stereotypes, fashion etc… But it really overwhelmed me with ideas which brought my creative thought process to a stand still, I had no idea where I wanted to take my project. It took me a while to work out what it was I really liked about the film, although the camera angles were interesting and unique, I think using them in my own work would come across quite cheesy and obvious. What Ive noticed while looking into boxing is that most imagery based around it is in black and white with a really strong contrast. I decided that this idea would be ideal to experiment with, which brought me onto researching artists that worked in high contrast, and are focused on capturing lifestyle and personality. 

10thMarch2014

(Adekokan, Adde. Collection of Triptychs)

I came across the  Germany-based street photographer Adde Adesokan, his photos series ’Triptychs of Strangers’ depicts photographs of strangers that capture wonderful images including the portrayal of the stranger’s personality… The black and white images depict the subjects features using a cropped frame and fairly high contrast filter. The background is very out of focus which draws your attention entirely to the model. I think the images are beautifully thought out and put together, revealing subtle amounts of a personality. The main aspect of these images that I like is the composition of the portraits, I think that the unusual framing of them intensifies the eyes and if blown up to a big scale the images would be really captivating. Because my project is about boxing I feel like the use of a triptych in this way would not be necessary to experiment with.

(Enriquez, Sebastian. Collage of photographers imagery from series Postcard from Perut)

Sebastiån Enriquez is a freelance documentary photographer and storyteller based in Lima, Peru. One of his most famous series of images link perfectly to my project - Postcard from Peru; Boxing for a dream. The series consists of images taken in Rojitas boxing gym in Peru. When Enriquez began this project on boxers he was curious about what motivated so many young people to get into a ring and get punched. "Why not play soccer or dance?" In the ghettos of Callao - the main port and one of the most dangerous places in Peru - has a special niche for boxing. This sport has always been a window of opportunity for young people, especially in a place where many of them must learn how to leave their problems in a ring and find a future by the gloves. Most of the children are disadvantaged and fighting to get out of poverty, drugs and crime. The ring becomes a subliminal space where the violence they face every day is tamed. Enriques series of photographs shows the workouts and training sessions in "Rojita" boxing school, the most important generator of boxing talent in Peru, which brings together teenage parents, young workers, colleagues and above all children.