THE WRESTLERS – PHOSPHENES

Story and Photography by Andree Ljutica

Suspended between theatrical arts and combat fighting, the worlds of independent professional wrestling and death match fighting are ripe with subtle contrasts and unexpected paradoxical elements related to gender and masculinity.

This photographic series, THE WRESTLERS PROJECT, intends to highlight these contrasts by presenting a select group of wrestlers from around the country in a high-glamour environment, effectively exposing the inherent tension between the sport’s masculine aggression and it’s performative nature.

THE WRESTLERS PROJECT is a photographic examination of gender assumptions and sexuality, using a select group of professional wrestlers as the creative medium. From transgender superstars of the sport, to niche deathmatch anti-heroes, these characters represent the archetypal make-up of wrestling today, and present a cohesive portrait of the priorities of popular culture. A sort of total entertainment, incorporating aspects of music, sport, brechtian theater, sex, comedy, drama, and violence, wrestling has consistently used its wide array of creative tenants to provide a mirror for society. Telling stories of rage, sexuality, gender fluidity, and egotism, these figures figures provide insights into today’s world.

And while its overall viewership curve undoubtedly shows the evidence of an occasional loss of attention or popularity, wrestling has, by aspects of its own merit, thrived. The story lines featured in THE WRESTLERS PROJECT offer a beautiful insight into the cultural priorities at work, today. In wrestling’s early incarnations, glistening boas and glitter drenched flesh were borrowed symbols from hair metal’s influence on masculinity and sex, suggesting a sort of perverted image of the male form, especially in the sport’s anti-hero characters.

While this distant contact with the sport’s sexualized “other” has at this point been embedded into its make-up for some time now, the new iteration of this brings with it a post-modern acceptance of a sexualized man in mass culture. It’s in this space that the new forms of transgression arrive on the sport’s independent circuits. Transgender wrestlers, deathmatch wrestlers, characters who use style and acrobatics in a completely new way. No longer is the sport presenting a tension between perceived masculinity and femininity, but it’s now expressing against these tensions in an environment that is entirely more aware of its importance. It’s in this space that wrestling can aid culture and even echo change.

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