A photography book by GUSTAVO LOPES PEREIRA
BOXING LISBOA ARQUIVO / ARCHIVE
It’s a photography book by Gustavo Lopes Pereira. It documents the Olympic Boxing scene in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area between 2015 and 2017, through an intimate journey through events, clubs and the community that supports it.
Lisbon’s amateur Boxing scene is as unspoken and unseen as it is intense and familiar.
In the absence of a solid professional circuit, Portuguese Boxing is dominated by a relatively small number of clubs and gyms that regularly meet in official or friendly bouts, under the scope of national and/or regional boxing entities. Portuguese Boxing has recently suffered the competition of younger forms of combat sports, like kickboxing and mixed martial arts (MMA), becoming sort of a niche practice in today’s sports landscape.
In Portuguese Boxing, advertising is made through word of mouth and social networks and mainstream media channels are almost invariably absent.
But maybe because they have become increasingly marginal, Lisbon’s boxing bouts are highly intense and intimate experiences: the distinction between public and private spaces is fluid; contemplation rules are bent and communication flows multi-way; family and friends are present; a victory in the ring acquires a personal and social significance that surpasses its own occurrence.
