Pugilists

• Prize
• Photographer
  Photography by David Scheinmann, India

Pugilists captures the intense and interior moments from a number of big UK arena boxing matches during 2012 and 2013. Often taken late on in the fight they reveal the boxers at the extremities of their mental, physical and emotional limits. By stripping away the familiar boxing ring elements and deconstructing these moments to low key black and white renditions, all the accoutrements of ritual has been kept out of the frame with the deliberate intention of leading the viewer to consider the primitive soul on display as the male of the species lock horns in this intimate and tribalistic theatre of combat.

These images are intended for exhibition and are between 1 and 2 meters square. made up from joined sections of pigment printed primed substrates with a beeswax and encaustic thick clear varnish type finish creating the appearance of fetishized artefacts.

The Pugilists series is consistent with much of my artistic endeavour, wherein the source material is often derived photo-journalistically as opposed to staged and seeks to challenge and subvert popular and familiar iconography through a personal photographic language.

• Awards
  AOP series and porfolio awards Creative Review Annual Taylor Wessing Polaroid First Price IPA hon mentions Px3 2013 first Prize