UK photographer and cameraman David Matches – you might know his work from the film Gladiator – is bringing his gritty depictions of manly men to New Zealand culture. His photographs of New Zealand rugby players will feature at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington, during the 2011 Rugby World Cup. They’ll move to Auckland for the Cup finale, then tour nationwide throughout 2011.

Matches has spent the last six years visiting New Zealand, a 10x8 camera in hand, photographing rugby players as they leave the field. It’s an artistic obsession that stems from a fascination with the sport and a game – that to Matches – is epitomised in New Zealand. This country, he has said, produces the best world’s players and has the ‘heart’ of rugby.

The soul of a player

To photograph his subjects Matches stands them against a stark, almost clinical, white background. He has only a few seconds and a single shot to get what he wants – "they still have the game in their soul. After that they're aware of you". The sweat is streaming, their faces and bodies are damaged, mud-splattered and tired. We see "almost forensic detail", as gallery director Avenal McKinnon describes it – yet, she points out, the camera’s enquiry exposes not physical brutalisation but emotional vulnerability. The camera strips people bare, and in the raw immediacy of the detail we see a visceral depiction of loss or achievement.  

Matches has described one memorable instance photographing All Black players just after they had lost a game. Animosity radiated from them and was palpable to Matches where he stood one-and-a-half metres away. Yet the images don't come across as confrontational because they get behind the mask of the players’ intimidation and anger.

These most macho of Kiwi males – as our culture would have it – do not show their strength as we’ve come to expect, in the flex of muscle or brute single-mindedness with the ball. The photographs suggest it also lies in the force of their emotion towards the game. Matches avoidance of cliché makes his images unique. What is also striking is that, taken after extreme physical exertion, the photographs nevertheless impart a sense of stillness. They are unlike any other staged shot, and any other rugby photo, which prefers men mid-tackle or struggling at the centre of a scrum. 

Getting inside the game

Matches’ images reveal not only the personality of the players, but the game of rugby itself. He’s concerned with the impact on individuals of team endeavour, and how the emotional response to the game takes hold of people – players and fans alike.

In what could be described as an anthropological exercise sustained over many years, he’s taken shots of young and seasoned players from Northland to Bluff and documented a national demographic of rugby. You’ll recognise the faces as Kiwi, and you’ll notice a shift in predominant skin colour as he travels from north to south.

But Matches also found that wherever he went, a community spirit has formed around the game. The sport brought locals together, and a shared love of the game meant he was warmly welcomed. Every year he is overwhelmed by the copious offerings of tea proffered to him (apparently Southland brews the best).

Outstanding

In 2011, 100 life-size photographs of rugby players will stand shoulder to shoulder along the length of Shed 11 on Wellington's waterfront. It will be a remarkable show – and not one for the faint-hearted. The New Zealand Portrait Gallery is thrilled to be hosting such a large-scale spectacle, although is still looking for a sponsor.

The exhibition will be popular, appealing to a rugby audience as well as to art lovers – and many people aren’t ashamed to admit they’re a bit of both.

Visit the New Zealand Portrait Gallery website at http://www.portraitgallery.nzl.org to see details of exhibitions, lecture series and other gallery events.

----------

Article by Fiona Oliver, a freelance writer and editor who divides her time between Wellington and the Wairarapa. Image: Neemia Tialata by David Matches.