BOXERS




This project explores boxing clubs as sanctuaries within an increasingly disheartening world, focusing on a sense of community within these spaces. My interest arises from feeling excluded as a queer woman from these communal bonds often associated with sports like football, rugby, or cricket, more accessible to men.The camaraderie among supporters of different sports teams, centered on a shared passion beyond oneself, fascinates me. I explore the physical environments facilitating these relationships and the individuals shaping these communities. Captured between Bil Sha’s boxing club in Kings Cross, Islington Boxing club and Edmonton Boxing club - my photographs reflect three months of repeatedly photographing boxers training and competing.

There are tender, layered relationships formed in these gyms - complex beyond what they appear to be founded on, two grown men lunging at each other in theatres across the country. These Interactions surprised me; tough boxers softened when approached, others delicately lacing up gloves and wrapping tape around their hands, offering apologies when sparring got a little too aggressive. My work also uses photography to explore androgyny and nuanced discourse around the ownership of photographs. In the realm of photography theory, the debate over picture ownership—photographer or subject—persists. I position myself uniquely: owning depicted bodies, particularly masculine ones, as I explore my own androgyny, examining how these photos resonate alongside my name.