The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
The Aura of Boxing by Max Kandhola
‘to document the methodology of the pugilistic artisan’.
Aura of Boxing began as a documentary to photograph the canvas floor of
the boxing ring. The canvas is the boxers sacred shroud, on which you may
fall and are engulfed by the weight of the cloth, or you are resurrected
to perform another day. On the canvas this is where all things happen.
The canvas is a blank sheet of paper, a mystic writing pad1, prepared each
time a boxer enters the ring and the performance begins. The trace of the
boxer is a sketched ephemeral imprint, as a new scripture is written,
orchestrated by the subtle ballet movements of the body and feet. After
each sparring match or ‘fight’, the canvas is re-written and reshaped. I
call this the palimpsest2-like landscape; the accidental marks, scraps,
fluid, blood, smearing the fabric of the canvas, the soul of the feet
blending and compressing the human pigment imbedded into the surface, to
erase, cultivate and begin again. I was attracted to the visual aesthetic
and composite of the boxing canvas in the same way I first encountered
and inquired about Cy Twombly’s drawing and marks on paper, paintings by
Anselm Kiefer, Derek Jarman, Mark Rothko and Antoni Tapies, the varnish
chalk, paint, charcoal and found objects are replaced by the blood,
saliva, sweat and fragmented scrapping from the body all held within the
detritus of the torn boxing canvas.
The Aura of Boxing is the academy of boxing excellence to embrace race,
class and social standing, and how for some people it provides a ‘flight
from poverty’3. There is a complexity to boxing I can only compare to
chess. Conversely, chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov saw the game as a
reflection of life:
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
"I, like many others, see in chess a remarkably accurate model of human
life with its daily struggles and ups and downs."
4
There is a refined and elegant intelligence within boxing. A graceful
performer
elevated
within
the
theatre
of
their
dreams.
Brecht
would
compare the theatre to the boxing ring - a place of theatrical drama, the
audience anticipating every gesture and sound. Jake LaMotta’s opening
lines in Raging Bull 5 , rehearsing his stage act in his dressing room at
the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel, New York:
“I remember those cheers, they still ring in my ears, and for years they
remain in my thoughts.”
The
pugilistic
act
is
meticulously
rehearsed
in
the
gym.
The
boxer
negotiates the four corners of the canvas for secure footing, navigating
the area within the ring to compose a mental spatial mapping of the floor
on which to dance, shuffle and glide between the dimensions of the ring.
In
practice
each boxer
sculpts
through
the
air
precise
movements to
perfect their sweet science. My time spent with boxers and within the
boxing environment was to be present amongst artisans, each one reciting
and rehearsing, shadow boxing in pursuit of greatness. The ritual and
repetition
provided
a
multi
sensory
experience,
a sense
of
order to
familiarise and architect their art within the context of the boxing
ring. The ritual is silently orchestrated, a delicate process to cleanse
the body and mind to exorcize hidden ghosts and find a sense of peace. A
perfect balance of the senses.“Waheguru, Waheguru, Waheguru”6.
This is an area familiar to me, within the Sikh faith meditation during
the day and night provides humility (Nimrata) and contentment (Santokh).
With humility comes silence and reflection. The repetition of words, is
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
practiced
at
mosques,
churches,
within
monasteries,
Synagogues,
and
Buddhist temples. This is no different from the cocooned environment, the
wilderness of the gym:
‘Every touching experience of architecture is multi-sensory; qualities of
space, matter and scale are measured equally by the eye, ear, nose, skin,
tongue, skeleton and muscle’.7
To navigate the space within the ring for each 3-minute round is to
curate and map your own personal identity and hypnotise your opponent to
submission.
This
can
only
be
achieved
through
a
ritual
of
self-
preservation and discipline. The space within the ring is the signifier
of your destiny; within 36 minutes you confront your alter ego, (shadow)
your
reflection,
mentor
and
saviour.
The
relationship
between
photographer and subject requires intimacy, to penetrate their space I
had almost to taste the skin, drink the sweat and absorb the bodily heat
from each boxer. In my studio after a period of photographing, my clothes
would release the stale aroma of the gym and of each boxer's invisible
aura into the air.
‘The smells of this world are sour and pungent, a stale, gamey odor
blended of sweat and liniment, worn fight gear, cheap cigars and too many
bodies, clothed and unclothed, packed into a room with no noticeable
means of ventilation.8
The camera and the photographer are literally metamorphosed into one
object to scrape the layers of history and photograph the DNA of boxing.
From the beginning the aim of my research into boxing was to document the
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
pedagogic methodology of the pugilistic artisan. My photographic research
on boxing has been informed by extensive fieldwork, working in gyms and
specifically
narrating
the
photographic
content
through
three
British
Boxers, Clarke, Francis and McCracken. My scholarly research has been
informed through music, art, theatre, literature, film and photography;
Gerald
Early,
Wacquant,
David
Budd
Juhani
Scott,
Schulberg,
Pallasmaa,
John
Sugden,
James
Norman
Baldwin,
Mailer,
Joyce
Carol
Ralph
William
Oates,
Ellison,
Klien,
Jean
Ken
Loic
Burns,
Michel-Basquiat,
Manuael Miguel Rio Branco, Italo Calvino, and Martin Scorsese to name a
few who have provided me years of informed research.
Photographic research methodologies (my practice) is to unveil the depths
of life, its insanity and to bring logic to life through words and
pictures. Wacquant's essay, The Pugilistic Point of View: How Boxers
Think and Feel about Their Trade (1995) 9 , provided a raw transcript that
articulates
the
boxers
voice
in
method
and
ritual.
Similarly,
Budd
Schulberg's classic boxing novel, The Harder They Fall (1962), is an
alluring fictional yet informed overture of the 1950s boxing fraternity.
10
His short essay, Stillman’s Gym,
aspects
of
the
content
within
represents a pungent account, and
my
photographs.
Race
and
class
are
integrated within the fabric of boxing cultures, Ralph Ellison’s 11 quote
within Aura of Boxing, provides a subtle hint to a complex veneer and
monopoly of shared financial investment, as the young boxer in the ring
observes
after
taking
his
blind
fold
off,
he
identifies
with
key
respectable individuals seated around the ring watching him perform. In
William
Klein’s,
Muhammad
Ali
The
Greatest,
the
carousal
of
boxing
politics provides an informed backdrop and introduces the audience to the
idea
of
the
shared
syndicate,
Harlem
workshops
and Nation
of
Islam.
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
Schulberg also wrote the screenplay for On The Water Front (1954), 12 in
which Brando is portrayed as a boxing contender who threw his fight to
appease the mob. The atmospheric black & white cinematography, together
with the sound track, provided a charcoal landscape. The film is about
redemption
and
the
edges
of
society
that
is
unforgiving.
Yet
this
landscape more than often nurtures and provides future champions from the
many
communities
living
at
the
periphery
of
social,
economic
and
political challenges, be it Kazan’s portrayal of the Waterfront set in
Brooklyn and Manhattan, or Sheridan’s The Boxer13 (1997) placed within the
landscape of Belfast. Aura of Boxing has its provenance embedded within
the fabric of Digbeth, Small Heath and Newtown in Birmingham, what I
consider to be Middle Earth.
Reflection
and
solitude,
watching
and
observing,
listening,
smelling,
(sniffed the air and caught the sounds) 14 , and touching are essential to
sensualise, to acclimatise or even environmentalise oneself within the
work, which is to inform one's field notes. The raw, unedited contact
sheets
reflect
subject,
when
this
only
passage
a
of
minimal
intense
amount
of
sensory
interrogation
of
the
actual
documentation
through
camera is made.
The boxer would go about their routine in silence from one side of the
building
hands,
to
the
other.
occasionally
Their
covered
in
caressing
white
and
powder
foreplay
in
of
outstretched
preparation
to
begin
wrapping the bandages around hands and knuckles. I have often referred
back to The ‘Seated Boxer’, also known as the ‘Boxer at Rest’, 15 which
provides an insight to the solitude and reflective gesture of the boxer.
Depending upon the amount of fistic encounters and the boxer’s age, the
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
now-hardened
skin
would
resemble
a
bruised
landscape
of
the
boxer's
mapping of his dedicated art. To touch and to photograph the skin is a
tender personal moment. The skin is soft and elastic and can be stretched
and distorted. The contours that make the form, be it hand or face, can
distort through stress. Scarring is a natural process of healing:
‘The skin has important protective functions against mechanical trauma
such as friction, impact, pressure, cutting, and shear’.
16
There
1996-2000,
was
an
intense
photographic
period
between
which
provided many opportunities to document boxers and their environment.
This time was also difficult due to the death of my father in 1998, and
then in July 2000 while on a documentary photographing world heavy weight
champion Lennox Lewis with the late great trainer Emanuel Steward, prior
to Lewis’s fight with Francois Botha in London, on the second day I
received news of my brother’s sudden death. Rather than making work in
the proceeding months and years I did not make any work for over 2 years,
only
returning
back
to
boxing
occasionally
in
this
period
to
begin
editing and placing some sense and context to the photographs made.
The Aura of Boxing identifies itself with the boxers' environment, within
the residual presence of boxers past and present reflected within the
aura and silence of the interior space they occupy. Looking through the
contact sheets, there is a sense of peace. Occasionally I would detach
myself from the acoustics of the place to only narrow my vision with the
boxer. My camera lens would glance the face or ear of the boxer; I would
get pushed and punched away from their immediate space. Yet I would keep
my lens fixed on the torso, each time moving in closer to spar with the
boxer
only
that
I
had
my
camera
as
protection.
I
was
hit
on
many
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
occasions. I felt comfortable with the intimacy of this work. At the same
time I was making Illustration of Life17, I documented the landscape of my
father’s body with the same intimacy, to cleanse the body of his illness.
The camera allows this penetration of the body.
The
boxers’
aura
is
a
brief
and
unique
transcendental
moment
of
an
extreme heightened awareness when, for a split second, time has been
captured. This happens during the boxer’s meditative state within their
performance
in
reaching
for
a
mental
state
of
consciousness.
I
am
continually drawn to the idea of a physical awareness, a sensibility,
visual consciousness, which is informed by recently reviewing Buddhist
phenomenology (form, sensation, perception, formation & consciousness). I
have deliberately moved and composed my camera away from the duel, the
classic ‘fight’ of two boxers engaged in boxing. The photographs are not
about masculinity; it is actually not even about fighting or the duel.
There have been many boxers photographed in making, The Aura of Boxing.
With the three British boxers, who provide a legacy and provenance of
boxing histories, Clarke, Francis and McCracken, they would bring in
their own story, and contrasting boxing life, that would reflect for many
the boxers odyssey from Brooklyn, Havana, Belfast, Bethnal Green London
and Digbeth Birmingham. Howard ‘Clakka’ Clarke18 guided me through various
boxing gyms in Birmingham, Nobby Nobbs, Pat Cowdell’s, Birmingham Boys
Boxing club in Digbeth. The turning point for Howard came in 1999 after
his loss to Fernando Vargas at Madison Square gardens, fighting for the
IBF Light Middleweight Title. Howard was beaten, stopped in 4 rounds.
Prior to the fight with Vargas Howard had 38 fights, winning 26. After
Madison Square Garden, Howard won only one fight out of 70.
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
The boxer(s) (Howard) retains dignity and within the context of boxing
terminology the journeyman19 is more than often applied to many boxers who
do not sustain a level of consistency in winning to become a champion.
The journeyman mostly branded around within media and press is a
contentious word that needs redefining. The pugilistic art can only
sustain its level of excellence and champions if the pugilistic land is
fertile and cultivated with future contenders. The travelling man in
boxing is the odyssey for many. Howard retired in April 2007, and in
writing this essay, I am deeply saddened to know about his suffering from
dementia. Howard’s odyssey has to be one of hope. Julius Francis20, a
former 4-times British heavyweight and Commonwealth champion. I began
photographing Julius in 1998-2002, just before his fight with Mike Tyson
in January 200021. Julius lost to Tyson in 2 rounds, knocked out. In his
career Julius fought recognized heavyweight contenders, Vitali Klitschko
in 1998, lost in 2 rounds, Welch, Holden, Williams, Maskaev and Harrison.
Julius, after retiring, now works as a boxing trainer, and within media.
Robert McCracken22, won the British Light Middle weight title 1994 and in
1995 won the Commonwealth title. Robert was introduced to me by his
brother, Spencer who was also a boxer. I photographed Robert at the
Birmingham boys club in Digbeth between 1996 and 1998. Currently Robert
is performance director for the British Olympic team, and is personal
coach to the current IBF and WBA super-middleweight champion Carl Froch.
This landscape has been consistent in its fluctuation over the years,
historically reflecting the social class and dignity of each person that
represents their hopes and dreams. It seems that so many of these boxers
that
I
have
encountered
have
been cocooned
or
conditioned
by
social
pressures. The impact and presence of mind that manifests within inner
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
city dwellings is curdled by the politics of class and structure. School
halls, a warehouse, disused buildings and social clubs - these are the
backdrops
that
form
and
shape
the
boxer’s
landscape
that
I
have
witnessed, and in their conversations and thoughts on boxing, they have
often described these interior spaces as a form of sanctuary or a temple.
Through
the
years
this
environment
has
contained
their
thoughts
and
emotions. Posters, chalk dust, blood stains, torn canvas, saliva, bus
tickets, photographs, press cuttings, perspiration, the echo of the punch
ball and friction of leather on leather are fragments and memories held
within their space.
Aura is obscure. It is also ambiguous and magical, unless you believe
within the context of your discipline, which is to have faith. You have
to find and negotiate that place. Faith and belief is to exorcise your
ghosts, to perform at your most heightened level of mind and soul, where
the aura can be found. In Aura of Boxing and in my conversation with
boxers, aura is the holy grail in boxing.
1
A Note upon the “Mystic Writing Pad” (1925), From Freud, General Psychological Theory, Chapter XIII, 1925
2
A manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed
on effaced earlier writing. something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form:
3
John Sugden, Boxing and Society: An International Analysis, 1996, Manchester University Press.
4
Garry Kasparov:
5
Ragging Bull 1980, Martin Scorsese
6
Sikh prayer reciting Waheguru, supreme being
7
Juhani Pallasmaa The Eyes of The Skin Architecture And The Senses.
8
Budd Schulberg The Harder they Fall, Corgi edition 1962
9
Loïc Wacquant, ‘The Pugilistic Point of View: How Boxers Think and Feel about their Trade;
Theory and Society’, Vol. 24, No 4, Aug. 1995.
10
Budd Schulberg Sparring with Hemingway and other Legends of the Fight Game, Stillmans’s Gym; Robson
Books Ltd 1997
The Aura of Boxing Max Kandhola October 2013(edit no3)
11
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books 1965, first published Random House Inc., 1952.
12
On The Water Front Elia Kazan 1954
13
14
The Boxer Jim Sheridan 1997
Lucien Febvre, p28, from The Eyes of The Skin Archeteture and The Senes
15
Seated Boxer dated 330 BC found in 1885 Rome. Museo Nazionale Romano in the Palazzo Massimo alle
Terme
16
Christopher Edwards, PhD Roland Marks, MDDS, FRCP, FRCPath; Evaluation of Biomechanical Properties of
Human Skin; Clinics in Dermatology 1995; 13:375-380
17
Illustration of Life, Max Kandhola, Dewi Lewis Publishing, Impressions Gallery, Light Work NY 2002
18
Howard Clarke from Warley, West Midlands. His fight record: won 27 lost 79 drawn 2.
19
A journeyman is someone who has completed an apprenticeship and is fully educated in a trade or craft,
but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman has to submit a master work piece to a guild for
evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master.
20
Julius Francis from Peckham, London (W 23 L 24 D 1),
21
I was working closely at the time with Julius and The Independent on Saturday who, for the weekend of
the fight, used an edited selection for the front cover and inside story.
22
Robert McCracken, Birmingham (W 33 L 2 D 0)
Further reading and filmography