Context Africa: Senagalese wrestlers captured in monochrome

Candace Feit is an award winning photographer who spent several years in West Africa. She's recently moved to India, and photography from the region is worse for it. Her work is always thoughtful and beautiful, and tells some stories that make headlines and also important stories that don't. I loved her recent series on Senegalese wrestlers, "Tyson vs. 50 Cent," and she agreed to answer a few questions about it for Context Africa.

The point of this series is to highlight projects that go above and beyond daily news to tell a story of a place in its context. I also hope create an ongoing dialogue about what it means to tell contextual stories in Africa. There's a lot of daily news out there that is factually incorrect, slanted, or stereotyped. But, there are also a lot of journalists committed to telling a different kind of story.

See Context Africa posts:

There are a lot of wrestlers in Senegal. How did you decide to focus on this particular group? How long did you spend working on this series?

This story was shot for Arise Magazine and I worked with writer Rose Skelton on it. Rose made contact with some of the members of the wrestling community in Senegal and they advised us on where to go. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of schools like this one, which is in a suburb of Dakar. We were only able to get to the school for one afternoon, but when we showed up, after a bit of explaining they let me just wander around, observe and photograph. Once I walked into the place I was pretty blown away by how it looked, with a hundred plus guys going through these rounds of exercises, calisthenics and then sparring. I didn't get to work on this as long as I wanted because I was in the process of moving from Dakar to New Delhi, and the first part of the project was shot during my last week in Dakar. I wanted to photograph at least one match as well but the weekend I was leaving town all of the matches were canceled because of a general election. Luckily I was passing back through Dakar in early May so I could fit another couple of days of shooting in. All told I spent about 4 days shooting the story (2 more days than I budgeted for), but I wish I had had more time, this is one of those stories I feel like I could easily work on for many months, especially as there are so many guys in these schools who could very well be just on the cusp of making it big - so it would be great to have the opportunity to keep track of one or two of them through a year or so.

The photos certainly play with geometry and symmetry, visually, but never at the cost of the individuals who are pictured. What did you do to try and achieve that balance?

That balance is always in the back of my mind - especially in a situation like this where the beauty of the guys all in relative sync, running through their series of exercises is the most obvious thing about the scene. Even if it looks effortless so because these guys are so huge and so fit, it's definitely not, and that was a big part of the story to me. In that way it was important to actually connect with guys (and the fans) and show the beauty along with the fierce determination to compete. One of the goals of my work is to show the connection with the subject and to gain more insight into the story behind the image - and to that I am always trying to shoot for the person and the feeling of the situation and not just the person as a nice shape in my composition. Especially in a story like this where the energies were running so high - with both the training and the fans - it is a spectacle full of anticipation but there are also quiet moments where the wrestlers are thoughtful and calm. It's all part of the showmanship of the matches, and the matches themselves are usually very brief (2-3 mins) so there is all of this stuff around the actual match that I found incredibly interesting and that could act as a counterbalance to the intensity.

Technically speaking, it seems like you use both short lenses and long lens to create a variety of looks. What lenses did you loose to snap this with? And why did you pick black and white versus color?

I prefer shooting in film (6x6 med format) but when I shoot digitally I use Nikons (D700/D200/D300) with a few different lenses - mostly a 17-35, 28-70 and I use a 18-200 occasionally too but after years of running around with too much gear that I never used, I've tried to strip it down to the minimum. It was actually the magazine who wanted the piece in black and white - it's not something I usually work in - but after looking at both options, I definitely agreed with them. I think presenting it in black and white had the benefit of stripping the photos down and removing a lot of visual information that would be distracting in color.

You mention that wrestling is changing a lot in Senegal, from a village sport to big business. Did you get to see examples of the village counterpart during your time in Senegal?

I have seen matches in villages in Senegal - both between kids and adults. Unfortunately I never got to see the stadium matches until I was working on this story, despite always wanting to go. Sport and physical fitness is such a huge passion in Senegal - especially in Dakar, were every beach is filled with a wide range of people working out, running, doing pushups in the sand. It is part of the landscape of the place, and I think can be used as a good tool for understanding the culture of the country.

At any point during the snapping did you do some wrestling?? Or weight lifting? ;)

Good question! No, though I did have to run around a bit shooting this. These guys are so huge - their presence are overwhelming. At one point I went with a wrestler who works out at my gym to photograph him through his workout. He took me around and introduced me to the staff there - none of who seemed to recognize me from my time there.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009