It is a rare thing for a woman to enter a boxing gym – and to be accepted there. But, that is what photographer Jona Frank accomplished. Gripped by the atmosphere, in 2010, and continuing for the next four years, she began to explore and photograph at an amateur boxing club in a working class community outside Liverpool, England. Her new book, The Modern Kids is an emotionally charged record of adolescent boys at a formative time in their lives when sport becomes intertwined with character. Combining the qualities of formal portraiture with the intimacy of viewing the sport of boxing from a woman’s view, The Modern Kids reveals a world that is both heroic and violent. The book features an essay by artist and filmmaker Bruce Weber who Frank credits as an influence.
« I liked hanging out in the gym,» says Frank, who was first introduced to the boxing clubs by an English friend she had met over 20 years earlier while on a road trip through the U.S. « I liked how inviting and open the spaces are and I liked watching how hard these boys worked. I also liked the history – here was a place where age and youth and dads and lads all coincide and work together. »
In boxing, the two opponents are physically and psychologically stripped down, determined to express their power. The boys of The Modern Kids, sweaty and spent and sharing their moments of winning or defeat, try to act tough for the camera posing after their fights with faces that evoke the timelessness of boxing. Yet, while Frank’s photographs provide a record of the sport, they also highlight a community whose presence is slowly fading, as gyms begin to close and work is hard to come by.
« Although some of the most gentlemanly people I have ever met are boxers, for Jona to go into a boxing gym as a woman is a very rare thing. I used to visit a gym out in Las Vegas called Johnny Tocco’s that had a sign which read, No Women Allowed. But Jona’s boxers let her have this experience. They wanted to share their moment of glory with her, and she in turn made heroes of them in her photographs. These pictures will be placed on the mantles and the walls in their homes. People will take notice. Their hard work will matter.
Some people might confuse the realism of Jona’s work with a certain anti-romanticism. But she’s just bending the ideal by holding true to the photographer’s mantra: Keep your eyes open and be true to your heart. »
Bruce Weber
Frank’s photographs show the grit and toughness of the boys, as well as the courage it takes to get in a boxing ring where it is constant movement and constant focus. After the fights, the boys share their moment of glory with the camera, and are in turn made heroes in these photographs.
BOOK
The Modern Kids
Jona Frank
Essay by Bruce Weber
Published by Kehrer Verlag
Designed by Kehrer Design
80 pages
12.5 x 9.5 inches, 24 x 31 cm
43 color photographs
Hardcover
ISBN 978-3-86828-632-8
Price: $50 / £30 / €34.90
U.S. Publication Date: April 2016
http://www.artbooksheidelberg.de/html/detail/en/jona-frank-978-3-86828-632-8.html
http://jonafrank.com
