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Layered Constructions in the Frame - Alex Webb and The Suffering of the Light

Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
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Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

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One of the most compelling influences for Muay Thai photography can come from cinema. Instead of the "sports reporter" history of fight photography, I believe we should draw on the much wider language of cinematic expression. It's roots lie very deep in our subconscious, and evocations of light and color languages open up worlds of the possible when trying to grasp not only a sport, but a culture. That is one reason why I've been studying the films (and thinking) of cinematographer Roger Deakins. His Sicario, Blade Runner 2049, No Country for Old Men have a lot to teach and share. What is cool is that Roger Deakins has a podcast with his wife James, so it isn't just on the level of images that one can dialogue with him.

One of the things that he makes clear is that he himself is inspired by still photographers, and one in particular he keeps returning to...Alex Webb. Above his a collection of his images from The Suffering of Light.

Deakins is clearly taken by what he imagines is the highly constructed nature of Alex Webb's frames. So much tension, juxtaposition, and layering. You can see all of it above, frames within frames, staggering of space. This is what was thinking of when I advocated for wide-lens photography for Muay Thai, the idea of spatial, situational inclusion, instead of just the "hero frame", as Brad Pitt calls it. What Alex invites is the staggering of space, so that the eye pinballs through the frame, forward and back. Many of his photos are beautifully jagged.

What is kind of interesting is how Deakins mis-imagines Webb's process, something he has thought long and hard about in his own artist fantasy. He seemed to picture Webb being very precise, kind of constructing the frame in advance, and then squeezing off a few precious photos, whereas Webb insists that he shoots prodigiously, lots and lots of frames, and that he only senses the possibility of the shot. It isn't until he looks later at what he has does he fully know if he got it. This is just a very interesting juxtaposition of influences. Deakins (cinematographically) looks at the finished project of Webb's (still photography) process, inspired by that perfect balance of tension, space and color, and then (I imagine) goes about constructing his own shots, in a much more controlled way. This seems like the inverse relationship between still photography (street) and cinematography. Webb using the frame to hunt, using his developed instincts, where as Deakins builds the frame in his mind, and then duplicates it in (dynamic) diaoramic practice.

You can listen to their discussion here:

https://www.rogerdeakins.com/team-deakins-podcast/episode-30-alex-webb-stills-photographer/

 

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    • Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
      Journaling - Readings, Muay Thai, Concepts and Articulations

      By Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu · Posted

      from the same commodity article I've been citing, here a very important transition from exclusivity to authenticity, as the distance between (knowledge) production and (knowledge) consumption shrinks, and duplication or imitation increases. This genuinely is where we are with the invasion of the "combo" from the West, really a technique "duplication" mechanism, attempting to copy and reproduce for export the more nuanced knowledge of traditional Muay Thai production. Notable is that, as rule changes have come to emphasize the de-skilled combo (clash fighting, KO bonuses, aggression and volume valorization, down-regulating defense and control), the counterfeit becomes woven into production itself...and, one suspects that "authenticity" will rise as a value marker, due to this collapse.   
    • Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
      Journaling - Readings, Muay Thai, Concepts and Articulations

      By Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu · Posted

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    • Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
      Journaling - Readings, Muay Thai, Concepts and Articulations

      By Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu · Posted

      Fighting is just such an incredibly compressive experience. Even one fight, or five. As Sylvie's husband it just boggles my mind that she has fought nearly 300 documented fights, even at the human level, stepping into the ring that many times, in a sport and culture she was not raised in, was not acclimated to in her youth, but rather came to love and grow into, earning her physical and emotional compassry, day by day, year by year. Just the sheer numbers of that compression spins my mind. Over and over and over. Stepping into conflict fire to learn the art of shaping under duress.  This week Sylvie had one of her more typical matchups. Refusing to fight in tourism's Entertainment Muay Thai, especially since COVID, she's positioned herself at the margins of where the Internet light usually shines, in provincial festival fights and in local city scenes where traditional Muay Thai is still trained for and fought. And giving up substantive weight so matchups that test her, grow her, can be had. This time it was in Hua Hin vs Linping who is a 53-54 kg fighter who often faces significantly bigger Westerners. She's tested herself. But Sylvie is giving up 6-7 kgs going in. Not all that unusual for her, in fact about half her fights have been 3 or more weight classes up.    What I'm writing about here is something much more simple, something more elemental. Sylvie - by far - has fought up more than any female fighter in documented history, likely by a very, very large margin. Speaking of the compressiveness of fighting there is something that is even more intensely compressive when fighting someone larger than you, and even distinctly quite bigger. The body itself seems to experience the danger, the risk, at a very base level. You stand there, they stand there, the size can just be felt. She's very experienced in this, and has developed any number of tools, both technical and psychological, to mitigate that, but just as a witness, there is some level at which nothing can be done. It just is going to compress you. And that she has done this for such an enormous number of fights is kind of insane and unknowable. She looks at large opponents and her mind now sizes them down. They don't seem that big, but at a real and substantive level the emotional body knows. And I stand in awe at this mountain she is climbing. She has made an art of the duress.    

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