TSV 1863 Trotsberg Ringen
This work is a direct collaboration with one small wrestling club within Germany. With the understanding and agreement of the wrestling members of this club, I am photographing their three-hour practices weekly with my large-format camera. Culminating in an artist book, this new work considers how photographic representations of these very wrestlers evolve over time through consistent collaboration and engagement. The end result will examine what is shown, or hidden, within the confines of the photograph when I engage with this group for an extended period of time.
This work is in constant dialogue with these wrestlers to bring social frameworks and narratives into its pictures. It is a study in contrasts: youth and manhood, strength and weakness, tenderness and rigidity, odd and ordinary, splendor and roughness. The social concepts within this body of work are happening on a hyper-local level. I am an American artist collaborating on images with immigrants and locals within one small club and we as a group are uploading, printing, playing with, and showcasing what exactly it is to be a wrestler.
This work is in constant dialogue with these wrestlers to bring social frameworks and narratives into its pictures. It is a study in contrasts: youth and manhood, strength and weakness, tenderness and rigidity, odd and ordinary, splendor and roughness. The social concepts within this body of work are happening on a hyper-local level. I am an American artist collaborating on images with immigrants and locals within one small club and we as a group are uploading, printing, playing with, and showcasing what exactly it is to be a wrestler.