Seeing beauty in the grotesque
David Aschkenas had a 30-year career as a professional photographer for corporate clients, but in his retirement, he has more time to take photos to please himself, which in turn please the recipients on his email list.
As a lucky recipient, I always click the link to see his latest raft of mostly sublime photographs from Pittsburgh ramblings and international travels — churches, synagogues, street scenes and portraits, people in museums, landscapes at
twilight, historic sites and ethereal images that catch angles, shadows and abstractions.
Nothing of his work that I had seen prepared me for the photos he showed me one day over coffee in East Liberty, near his Highland Park home.
He pulled out a self-published book titled “Gladiators.” The cover photo shows wrestler Del Douglas swooning against the arms of two men on each side of him.
“Like Jesus coming off the cross,” Mr. Aschkenas said somberly.
The setting was a wrestling ring in the street during Millvale Days one recent year.
On page after page, grown men, some barely dressed — one in a thong — are grappling, pro-style, flying through the air to land on prostrated opponents, pulling hair, grabbing cheeks with growling faces and macabre expressions.
Full admission: I was repulsed.
Then Mr. Aschkenas said, “That was the most fun I’ve had taking pictures.”
This photographer obviously appreciates beauty, but he does not limit himself. I tried to rethink my attitude.
On the margins of his photos, beyond the ropes of the ring, the faces of adults and children reflect delighted horror, laughter, wide-eyed suspense, downturned thumbs and arms in the air.
They were having fun, too.
The subjects are members of the Keystone State Wrestling Alliance, which turned 19 this past weekend. Its home base is the Spirit Hall in Lawrenceville, but the group also holds events in fire halls, American Legions, outdoors in nice weather at Millvale Days and the Brawl Under the Bridge in July in Homestead.
Mr. Aschkenas’ photos of the wrestlers will be on exhibit for one day — from 6 to 9 p.m. March 1 — at the studio of artist Mark Gualtieri, 179 4 3rd St. in Lawrenceville. The exhibit is free and open to the public.
The KSWA is an “heir apparent” to the old studio wrestling days of the 1970s in the Pittsburgh area, said ring announcer “Trapper” Tom Leturgey, who also writes about alliance matches for its website, KSWA.net.
Of Mr. Aschkenas’ book, Mr. Leturgey said, “The pictures are phenomenal. They are as beautiful as any other sport or activity I’ve seen. They are of our great moments.”
The KSWA has about 24 members. They range in age from 20 to mid-50s. They have names like Dr. Devastation, the Beastman, Massacre, Jester and The Gavel.
“We do have big names from time to time, but the vast majority of the time, it’s local guys,” Mr. Leturgey said. “We don’t use the word ‘fake,’ but it is a … it’s uh, it’s not [Mixed Martial Arts], which is brutal. Our guys are athletes, but if not getting hurt is a virtue, then, yes,” it is athletic theater.
When a wrestler climbs onto the ropes and launches himself to land on his opponent, that, Mr. Leturgey said, is called “a body splash.”
As the announcer, Mr. Leturgey wears a blazer in the ring. Some wrestlers wear the traditional singlet, but some dress up in costumes. One wears a chicken suit. Dr. Devastation wears shiny pants that look like garbage bags.
“The fans call him Garbage Pants,” Mr. Leturgey said. “It’s a lot of fun, which is why I’ve been doing this for 14 years. We call our fans The Krazies.”
T-Rantula, whom Mr. Leturgey described as 6 feet 7, 360 pounds, rode his motorcycle to the Brawl Under the Bridge last July with Homestead Mayor Betty Esper on back, “and the people went crazy,” he said. “We attracted more than 800 people last year.”
Mr. Aschkenas’ latest offering to his email community was a link to photos of churches and synagogues in Italy that he took on a recent visit to Rome and Siena — architectural eye candy, of which I am a fan.
I am not yet a fan of body splashes, except the ones in the toiletries aisle, but I am willing to reconsider the spectacle. I can even imagine going to an event and enjoying it, thanks to a photographer who ends his messages, “As always, thanks for looking.”