Wombat Art Box No. 38

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a dedicated boxing fan.
Not everyone knows that I am a rabid Stanley Kubrick movie fan. Ever since I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey (on acid in 1968 - when acid was pure), I have been fascinated by his sophisticated visual approach to storytelling. In my opinion, every frame of his films could stand alone. Any of the frames from the first hour of Full Metal Jacket, all of A Clockwork Orange, Barry Linden, The Shining, and Paths of Glory. We’ll forget Eyes Wide Shut.
I was very late to discover that he was also a commercial photographer, and how good his work was. It now makes perfect sense that he took that strong visual approach to filmmaking. Now comes the good part.
Stanley Kubrick made a number of great boxing photographs. They were commissioned by Look Magazine for a profile of Walter Cartier in “Prizefighter” (published January 18, 1949), and “Rocky Graziano: He’s a Good Boy Now.” (published February 14, 1950). The photographs are not standard boxing photographs, they are intimate, honest photographs of boxers. Having photographed in a neighborhood boxing gym for over 10 years, I know how hard it can be to get images this real. It’s a world unto itself.
The Wombat Art Box No. 38 packages a number of images from Prizefighter as well as an incredible black and white photograph of Rocky Graziano showering after a workout.
Info is below.
From the Wombat website:
PORTFOLIO NO. 38
Prizefighter by Stanley Kubrick. Boxing was a common subject for Look throughout the 1940s and 50s. The sport was at the height of its popularity, and over the course of five years, Kubrick created more than a half dozen assignments on the subject. For his seminal assignment, “Prizefighter: Walter Cartier Is a Young, Strong Middleweight Struggling Along in Sport’s Toughest Business,” Kubrick shot more than 1,200 images for the seven-page article. Published on January 18, 1949, it followed the personal and professional life of 24-year-old middleweight boxer Walter Cartier, making it one of Kubrick’s largest and most significant assignments for Look. The photographs were visually stunning, with dramatic compositions and shadowy, chiaroscuro lighting. Graphic design by Look’s art director Merle Armitage juxtaposed small and full-page images in asymmetrical page layouts, rendering the photographs even more compelling. Cartier himself was the subject of Kubrick’s first film, the newsreel Day of the Fight (1951), and he essentially repurposed his Look assignment as a storyboard for the film. By the time the film was released, Kubrick had quit work at the magazine and decided to dedicate himself to directing motion pictures. Kubrick’s work as a still photographer laid the technical and aesthetic foundations for his cinematography: he learned through the camera to be an acute observer of human interactions and to tell stories through images in dynamic narrative sequences. Kubrick’s early years at Look proved to be the start of his celebrated career as one of the 20th century’s great artists&mdasha time when he honed his skills as both a storyteller and an image maker, albeit through a different lens.