3rd Place, Annick Donkers, Belgium

I had been taking pictures of wrestling for a while before getting the opportunity to attend a ‘Hardcore Wrestling Match’. This type of wrestling is currently forbidden in Mexico City because of numerous accidents but it is still allowed outside the capital. Almost every month the organisation DTU arranges a wrestling spectacle in the village where El Santo, Mexico’s most famous wrestler, was born. The students receive professional wrestling training before being allowed to try the extreme style and they get paid a bit more for their bravery. A local carwash is turned into a real arena and the site of this ultraviolent wrestling match. The public, old and young, receives the wrestlers as local heroes.