Daniel Mendes has just turned pro. I met him through another shoot that I was doing and it turned out that we boxed at the same gym. I had wanted to do a boxing shoot ever since I started, but it always seemed such a cliche thing to do, once you have an idea the rule seems to be that you then see versions of it everywhere. I didn't want to replicate the standard images that I had seen, but after meeting Daniel I had the idea that I wanted to show the stillness and the focus that comes with boxing. It was a surprise to me when I started that there is very little violence in it, not in the physical sense as there is no getting away from the fact that you are punching each other in the head. But more the mental side of it, there is a reason that chess boxing exists and it is not simply a gimmick, when you are sparring/fighting it is like a chess game, your wits against theirs as much as your brawn.
In the set of images below I tried to capture that feeling of focus and of the silence you need to create in your head to allow thought and reaction to combine into a coherent movement. I want to thank Daniel for taking part and being a great subject, and wish him the best with his boxing career. I would also like to thank Victoria Poland at LPA who managed to give us a great sweaty look, although oiling him down was probably not the worst job she ever had to do. It is also worth mentioning that because we shot in a working club we we had a time limit of 3 hours to shoot the story. In all I am very happy with the results.
| LA |
No comments:
Post a Comment