Before lockdown I was able to visit the Amateur Boxing Club in Epsom to take some images of the training.

The idea of taking photographs of men fighting was how I originally wanted to capture men for one shoot for this project. Violence is a reaction that is predominantly thought of as a masculine characteristic, men defending themselves or to defend their people. Anger is an emotion that triggers the fight or flight response and causes the person to take immediate action to stop threatening behaviour.

When I started this project, I understood western masculinity in a very different way and through photography I wanted to create themes that criticise it.

These areas explored:

1. Aggression
2. Competition
3. Stress
4. Misogyny
5. The Apollonian
6. Power

 

The original idea for the boxing shoot came from my brother. He has struggled with mental health throughout his life and often this leads to angry outbreaks. As a result of this, it was suggested that he joined the boxing team to learn to channel the anger into something much more proactive. Initially, I thought this was a way for him to go and let out his anger to prevent lashing out in the home or around friends, however, the results have helped him in many aspects of his life.

 

Boxing for Joseph is learning to control your emotions. He has learnt to control his reactions when he feels threatened and not to let the anger ride over all reason. Talking to trainer Toby, this is what he experiences with most men who take part in these classes and what keeps them coming back.

 

If we understand that aggressive behaviour is not a masculine reaction but is maybe more common in men because they have less power over their emotions and are less willing to focus on the long-term problem of where these issues stem from, rather than the short-term solution of angry outburst that are immediately suppressed.

 

The images I have taken reflect this realisation too. The men do not appear aggressive and out of control, but are focused, using their mind to fight not their emotions.

 

Reflecting on my shoot:

I used 35mm camera to capture the boxers on coloured film. Using the film camera was challenging as I needed a fast shutter speed to capture the motion of my subjects, in a dark room lit with white light. Overall, I am happy with my images, however, if I could repeat the shoot, I would use a bigger flash on some of the images. I would also experiment further with using this in combination with a DSLR camera to ensure I had a diverse range of shots.