Untitled from the series Fight Journal, 2009 by Adam Smith
Mixed Martial Arts, commonly known as cage fighting, is one of the fastest growing sports in North America, rivaling in pay-per-view sales even the most popular of boxing matches. With its origins in combat sports from around the world, MMA didn't have an American audience until 1993, when the vale tudo (portuguese for "everything goes") style of fighting was brought over and incorporated into the Ultimate Fighting Championships. Contender Adam Smith spent some time documenting the bloody sport, capturing this seemingly savage, yet regulated—and still illegal in several states, including New York—combat and its fighters.
Untitled from the series Fight Journal, 2009 by Adam Smith
In his artist statement, Smith explains:
There is a moment before [a] fight when the rhythmic sound of warm-up punches and nervous chatter dissolves into a quiet stillness. This moment only lasts a second or two. No one in the room says anything. There is nothing else to say. Everyone knows what is about to happen. Months of intense training, sacrifice, pain and fear will explode in a fury of disciplined aggression: a beautifully brutal storm of ugliness and heart. When it is over, the two fighters will stand in the cage, naked in their victory or defeat. Each [knows] the implication of the outcome: Had it not been for an instrument of mercy that stops the fight—the rules—one could have killed the other. This is Mixed Martial Arts. Fight Journal profiles a group of professional and amateur fighters from the Pacific Northwest. The images explore contradictions inherent in the sport: the loneliness and brotherhood that exists side by side, the fear and the courage and the vulnerability and strength of these men that choose to fight.
Untitled from the series Fight Journal, 2009 by Adam Smith
Adam Smith is a Seattle-based freelance photographer. Before becoming a photographer, Smith worked as an account planner for an advertising agency. A self-taught photographer, Smith states that he is primarily interested in using documentary photography to create anthropological records that show how people work and live today.