Richard Denyer

I have always been fascinated by the demi-monde of professional wrestling. As an art student in the 1970s I photographed colleagues who used performance as their means of creative expression and it seemed a short step to the strange half-way theatre of wrestling, by which I mean half-way between script and spontaneity.

This set of six negatives were originally shot during the 1980s when wrestling was being hustled out of city centres by image-concious local authorities, to be replaced by clean shopping malls and attractive pavement furniture. It was the end of the free-style English sport and it was left to the Americans to come up with a louder and brasher version. I've worked on the prints with a master printer and produced what to me look like completely new artworks. There are some good aspects to digital technology.

I've been a photographer off and on for over thirty years, dividing my time between teaching and freelance practice. I returned full-time to photography in 2010 and I've recently concluded an Arts Council England-funded project on wetland regions in East Anglia and northern Holland.