Thorns of roses
Nowadays combat sports glorify the explosive and flashy aspect of violence, the collective vision of a multifaceted and noble discipline such as boxing is reduced to a fragment that highlights the violent and controversial aspect of this sport. In youth women's boxing a match lasts three rounds of two minutes each, in those lightning-fast six minutes a corollary of emotions is condensed that arise from the first months of training to culminate with the ringing of the bell. Thorns of roses wants to dig into what hides a match. Moving away from a purely male stereotype, the project seeks to achieve a more authentic aspect of the figure of the "fighter". The shots portray the invisible moments that form this sporting reality: a universe made up of screams and whispers, effort and tears, blows and hugs. Following the Eliteboxingclub gym in Milan, I tell these moments through the experience of one of its top athletes, Cecilia Ponari, Italian vice-champion youth 50kg. During international and national trips, the project enters the world of women's boxing by looking for the peculiar and collective traits of this discipline