Carol Huebner Venezia has been taking photographs at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, New York, since the beginning of the 1990s. The oldest and most famous boxing ring in the world has been the training ground for such heavyweights as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Jake La Motta and Mike Tyson. But Venezia shows neither prominent boxing stars nor spectacular matches. Instead, her work captures the intense atmosphere of this milieu. She sees these men as the heroic figures of our time, modern warriors that our culture idealizes and honors but also puts down and lets fall. Boxing offers the underprivileged and mostly black men in the USA a slight chance to make the American dream come true. The price for social standing and above-average income is often broken bones and permanent damage to their health. In contrast, other photographs show how things are in Assisi, the center of Italian boxing. There the young boxers don't fight to climb up the social ladder. They are much more interested in athletic competition and the art of boxing itself.
