The Aura of Boxing

The Aura of Boxing is a new photographic study by Max Kandhola, into the aesthetic and moral conflicts of the boxer within the spatial interior of the pugilistic landscape. Published by Dewi Lewis publishing, December 2013, the book contains 96 colour and black & white photographs, a new commissioned essay by Professor David Scott.

Max Kandhola photographed boxers at different weight divisions, amateur, professional, unknown boxers, contenders, champions and in the pursuit of the odyssey of the boxing journeyman. The Aura of Boxing intertwines between the boxer and their environment, at the peripheral Max followed three established boxers as a point of reference, which provides a legacy and provenance of boxing histories.

Julius Francis, a four-times British Heavyweight and Commonwealth champion, Kandhola first photographed in 2000 just before his fight with Mike Tyson; Howard ‘Clakka’ Clarke who fought at Madison Square Garden for the IBF Light Middleweight Title – he lost, after which his career significantly declined, with Howard winning only one fight out of his next seventy. He retired in 2007; Robert McCracken, who won the British Light Middleweight title in 1994 and the Commonwealth title in 1995 – currently McCracken is Performance Director for the British Olympic team, and personal coach to the current IBF and WBA super-middleweight champion Carl Froch.

The Aura of Boxing will be launched at three venues in 2014. Three distinct exhibitions will present Kandhola’s working methodologies in photographing The Aura of Boxing, each venue will provide spatial challenges in its installation within a gallery or industrial environment.

New Art Exchange will exhibit the black & white series; Rich Mix will present the colour series and at Format/Quad, The Chocolate Factory, Max Kandhola will present large format Contact Sheets. The exhibition will represent edited photographs from the book and also photographs that have not yet been published.