The Lion and The Lamb
2023 - 2024
Step into the world of the Columbia University Wrestling Team, where the art of grappling and the human spirit intersect. This project explores the mind-body connection of each wrestler and how those individuals interact with the collective. Each boy’s advanced physicality combined with a unique outlook on what physical touch means, allows these wrestlers to communicate and emote freely in a safe space.
America is in a crisis of masculinity. Young boys are born into families with few examples of men who are responsible for their own emotional regulation. The history of masculinity containing men who are seen as disposable (soldiers) and measuring their worth based on physical strength - meets a cruel world in this era of #metoo. Boys and men are unable to communicate their thoughts or emotions because society feels they do not deserve the space to express themselves. This has led our men to seek haven via isolation and the internet. Leading to the new buzzword: incel.
In the wrestling room, these young men exist as timeless figures in the modern era. As they grapple with each other, they tap into an ancient human instinct to battle; becoming ambassadors for the most naturalistic version of humans today. It is as if the wrestling room exists in a world where these boys have never been exposed to society’s idea of what men deserve. Or perhaps they are experiencing toxic masculinity on a day to day basis, and they create their own oasis of expression. Three components of their environment combine to form a pressure-cooker of emotions: the intensity of the sport, the endless hours of work put in to be deduced down to a 7 minute match, and the brotherhood which provides the space for them to break down and be brought back up. Every bead of sweat that falls onto the blue mat connects the boy from a low income family in the midwest, the boy from Nigeria who only just started wrestling, and the boy who has lived in a privileged side of New York City his whole life. Where he comes from is not important. All that matters is that he will sacrifice to become a warrior for his new brotherhood.
Aside from the hard work and unbreakable bonds; these boys are just that: boys. Even though they own a collection of qualities associated with grown men, they are still young people at a formative time in their lives. Through this project, images of playfulness, strength, intimacy, and innocence that form the connections between these wrestlers speak to each other as if they all happen moment to moment. In a time where young men are expected to be hollow, the smiles, screams, and gasps of exasperation echo endlessly in the wrestling room.