Social Commentary / Documentary Series Self Assessment

See the images here..
See the proposal here..

My aim for this folio was to “document the progress of a friend of mine, Kieran Walsh fight for the New South Wales state kickboxing welterweight championship belt. I planned to document his training and preparation as well as the final fight. The series should tell Kieran’s story from a personal, intimate perspective.”

I posted previously in my blog examples the high contrast, grainy, black and white feel I was trying to achieve. I feel that although my images were shot digitally, I managed to produce images that had a similar to feel to the Mohammad Ali photos.

In the training images I tried to depict the “person” so this would contrast with the “fighter” at the end of the series. I followed Kieran for a few training sessions and the image of him kicking the boxing bag, to me, depicts Kieran’s power in what appears to be a lazy kick.

On the night of the fight I shot Kieran sitting around listening to his ipod, talking quietly with his coach, wrapping his hands, warming up, entering, fighting, the presentation and the celebrations. I tried to record every step and every little intimate moment that Kieran experiences before his fight. During the fight I captured the fleeting moments of the punches and kicks.

As with any series however, there was a limit on the number of photos I could use to tell my story, so images of the relaxation and the warm up were cut. I believe the remaining images were more than sufficient to give that private insight. I also believe I have captured the emotion of the fight, both of the fighters and the audience (specifically Kieran’s mother). The final image to me sums the fight up perfectly and the raw emotion in Kieran’s face and his body language is a powerful finish.

If I had my time again I would have a more intense training image, however these training images were just before a fight and Kieran was taking it easy. I would also use a higher shutter speed for the fight images as his punches and kicks were still too fast, even when shot at 1/400th of a sec and upwards.