Gimnasio Nuevo Jordan

The images are from a portrait series of boxers taken over five years in a barrio gym, Gimnasio Nuevo Jordan, in Mexico City renowned for producing champions. Before taking photographs, I trained at the gym to get to know its members and gain their trust (if not their respect for my shabby boxing skills). Although closely integrated and bound by earned admiration, friendship and love, this tightknit community welcomed me and my camera. I would come to learn how the gimnasio is not only a place to fine tune physiques and sharpen boxing skills. Providing a sense of belonging and reprieve from hardscrabble lives, it is a sanctuary for hopes and dreams. Fittingly, there is a shrine in the gym to the ubiquitous Neustra Senora de Guadalupe, whose image presides over the multiple acts of communion, sacrifice, and grace unfolding below her. I have had the privilege of photographing dozens of boxers at Gimnasio Nuevo Jordan. For those who have collaborated with me for numerous sittings, it is interesting to note their fluctuations in weight class as well as the changes wrought by the triumphs and defeats of time. Using ambient light, each portrait is taken after the boxer has finished a grueling three hours of training. Rather than photographing the boxers in motion, I use these moments of exhausted repose to portray their dedication to the honing of their bodies and craft and their dignity in the pursuit of glory and social ascendency despite the slim chance of their attainment.