#117: ‘The Prizefighters’ by Arlene Schulman

‘The Prizefighters’ is comprised of selected interviews carried out by, and photographs taken by, photojournalist Arlene Schulman, edited together into a sort of retrospective of a career covering the sport of boxing.

The photographs (definitely the strongest aspect of the book) are really special and a treat for someone who has read so many boxing books that the usual shots have become a little tired and cliched. I don’t exactly know what time period is covered by this book but considering my favourite images are Emile Griffith, hair receding and in his coaching tracksuit; Marvin Hagler svelte and ready for action, and also happy in retirement regardless of his scarred brow; Mike Tyson, when promoters were still getting him into pinstripe shirts and ties, in a ring fist bumping a tiny child; Bob Foster holding a paint roller – all suggest a body of working spanning from the mid-1970s to the early-1990s.

The wide range of images and snippets of interviews sums the book up pretty well in that everything has been slightly forced together. Rather than a publisher taking the opportunity to explore what this (lens-lead) type of access might be able to tell us about the sport and its protagonists (and the photographer behind the images), we’re left with what looks like an attempt to flog a Christmas gift. This is a shame because Schulman is a fantastic photographer and it’s a chance missed to learn about her motivations as an artist and her attraction to the sport – and her creative choice to seemingly want to try to capture a more tender side of the sport’s participants.

All sports must have their own variants of books like this – a product for someone to buy for a friend, relative or colleague who they only know enough about to remember that they once mentioned that they liked boxing… once. This sort of approach doesn’t really do anyone any favours, particularly if it’s the only opportunity for the author/artist to have their work published.

A highlight of this book is the attention paid to amateur boxing, which made me think about how rich Schulman’s archive of work must be, considering that the amateur framework left in the U.S. now must be almost unrecognisable to the period covered in this book. And because I like to take any opportunity to quote Emile Griffith I’ll finish this post with a quote from the book, talking here in response to the Times Square Gym being demolished:

I never dreamed it was going to go down – I never thought they would tear down this building. We took it for granted. I feel sad. This is like home.