First abandoned photo: Fighting and dancing

Fighting and dancing, released on the streets: 29/10/2011.

Photo size: 18 x 24 cm

Frame: 20 x 28 cm

First abandoned photo: Fighting and dancing.

I chose a photo from my portfolio about “lucha libre” (wrestling) to start my photographic project. I like very much la lucha libre mexicana although I must say I’m not an expert on the subject. But I know a lot about la lucha because I grew in Mexico, a country where the wrestling sport is part of the popular culture. I grew watching luchas on TV and also watching many classic wrestling movies in which playing the biggest legends of all time in the Mexican wrestling, El Santo and Blue Demon.  I saw an on live wrestling combat by first time when I was a teenager and I loved it! Twelve years ago, when I had my first reflex camera, I started going to the arena to see las luchas and taking photos. Mexican wrestling is  an attractive photographic subject because there are many interesting elements to shoot, the wrestlers, the combat, the amazing jumps, and the public. But la lucha libre mexicana is more than just a show. Las luchas have many cultural elements, starting with the fact that a combat represent a battle between the good and the evil. Mexican wrestlers are divided in two classes, the técnicos that are the god guys following wrestling rules, and the rudos, the bad guys ignoring rules. So, a wrestling combat is a battle between the good against the evil. This concept was well represented by the classic combats between El Santo (The Saint), a técnico, and Blue Demon, a rudo; and the concept is reinforced because of the names of the wrestlers of course. Other cultural elements in Mexican wrestling are related to prehispanic civilizations, for instance some names of wrestlers are inspired on the prehispanic cultures, there was a luchador named “Guerrero Azteca” (Aztec Warrior), there is a little wrestler named “Alushe” (a goblin of the Mayan culture) and a wrestler girl named “Lady Azteka”. The mask is another element that has been related to prehispanic symbolisms, I’ll talk about that on the post for the following abandoned photo. Thus, la lucha libre mexicana is not only an entertainment show; it is also part of the Mexican culture.

Many people think las luchas are about wrestlers giving fake blows, but blows in wrestling are real. I must say I have saw wrestlers bleeding and having many and big scars. Of course, there is a technique to fight and avoid strong damage to the body, but it doesn’t mean that fighting doesn’t hurt! A good wrestler isn’t the strongest one; a good wrestler is who has an excellent wrestling technique. It’s amazing seeing heavy weight luchadores doing movements as they were dancers in the air. I think la lucha is a rude and hard sport but at same time it's refined having very precise movements such as those doing by ballet dancers. During a combat on the ring it’s possible to see incredible jumps and impacts and the actions for doing that are always very exact and trained movements, just like dance. Hence, for my photo “Dancing and fighting” I was inspired by las luchas and dance. I shot dance some times, at that time I read some books about dance photography in which I discovered the Lois’ Greendfield work. I learnt from his photos the concept of mixing the motion of the human body with untypical framing to create a tight image. Thus, when I worked on “Fighting and dancing” I thought about dance photograpgy, and here´s the result.

“Fighting and dancing” is on the streets and I hope someone will find it. We´ll see!