ABOUT

Concept: Photographs of MMA fighter Pia Hagen, made at Fightzone London in Bethnal Green on 31 August 2023. Pia fights at featherweight out of London, and this is training rather than fight night: a changing room portrait, gloves and shin pads going on, sparring rounds, and the bit at the end with her hands on her knees. Three months later she won by TKO in the first round at Cage Warriors Academy South East 33 in Colchester.

Execution: The gym gave me two completely different rooms and I used both. The changing room is white tile and daylight, so those frames are plain and still. The training floor is the opposite: black walls, black mats, black bags and almost no useful light, so I lit those myself and let the background fall away. Sparring is the hard part to photograph honestly, because you cannot direct it or ask for it again. So I shoot it long, from the edge of the mat, and let the second fighter block half the frame rather than moving to clear her, because that is what it looks like from where I am standing.

Results: A set that shows a fighter as a person as well as an athlete. A page of nothing but action tells you very little about the person doing it, and putting the two rooms next to each other is the point.