The Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation awards grants each year to young artists in several disciplines, including documentary photography. In 2024, the jury chaired by Clément Chéroux chose to support Léo d’Oriano’s project, which focuses on a Welsh athlete practicing bare-knuckle boxing, a discipline the photographer himself describes: “Bare knuckle boxing was a popular sport in the 1800s in the United Kingdom, before being banned due to its extreme violence and the excessive number of injuries suffered by its practitioners.” [After being deemed illegal, these fights were gradually reintroduced in the United States and Europe, and are now experiencing a renewed interest.] The naked, raw violence of bare knuckle boxing is the most intense and brutal spectacle I have ever witnessed. I want to understand the trajectories and stories of these people who bring this practice, this universe, to life. I have the intuition that telling these stories and documenting the growing collective enthusiasm for this sport would allow us to probe the very essence of our relationship with violence today.”
It was in 2023 that Léo d’Oriano discovered this practice in England and met a boxer, Dean Taff Morris: he decided to follow him during his training sessions and competitions, but also in his daily life with his family. He wanted to understand where this desire to practice such a violent sport comes from, and at the same time, enter the intimacy of his family circle where an atmosphere reigns that contrasts with the brutality of what he sees in the rings.
Of the boxer, he says he was “struck by the gentleness of his face and his expressions. It was this gentleness, perceived as paradoxical in this environment, that sparked my desire to photograph this world and its protagonists.”
The Foundation’s grant will allow him to “document the other side of a practice” and highlight the paradox that inhabits the destiny of such a character.
This project is a continuation of his previous work, in which he demonstrated his ability to immerse himself in a community, a social universe, and to visually translate his empathy. It is certainly this quality that earned this former student of the Gobelins school a participation in a collective commission from the Ministry of Culture orchestrated by the BnF: “X-ray of France: Views of a Country Going Through the Health Crisis”; and previously, in 2020, to conduct a sensitive work in the Bay of Somme entitled “À bas bruit” (Quietly), on romantic relationships among young people.
Gabriel Bauret
