Hello,
Brian Smale is not your typical portrait photographer. After all, he’s had his share of shooting not-your-typical people, from chain gangs and mobsters to the KKK. On assignment from Texas Monthly magazine, he headed to northern Mexico for a story on small-town Lucha Libre wrestlers. Brian shot portraits of the wrestlers in locations around their towns that helped bring out the over-the-top personalities of their Lucha characters. He also photographed a fight promoter (one of the few women in this male-dominated sport), a barber whose shop was plastered with Lucha posters and paraphernalia, and one of Mexico’s best-known mask-makers. There’s a haunting beauty in the way these images combine gritty reality with surreal fantasy and splendor. That’s the strange magic of Lucha Libre, and Brian captured it perfectly.
Fondly,
Freda
(650) 548.2446
freda@fredascott.com