To welcome the spirit of that much-anticipated global sporting event _ the London 2012 Summer Olympics _ Serindia Gallery is staging "Endure", a collection of outstanding photographs that capture the beauty of athletic movement and the essence of sportsmanship by famed duo Jonathan Anderson and Edwin Low, simply known as Anderson & Low.
"Endure" is their latest exhibition of unconventional athletic photography, the genre in which the pair have built their reputations for 22 years.
Each photograph takes the audience to visit an elite gymnastics training facility in Beijing, China. The duo has received exclusive access and permission to be the first photographers to witness the secrets behind the world-class Chinese gymnasts. The result is a groundbreaking collection that captures an honest representation of athleticism, and explores the tension of the human body and the ideal sportsman or woman.
Life talked to Anderson & Low about their exhibition in Bangkok and the art of athletic photography.
Tell us about the background of the upcoming exhibition.
We are well known for creating art projects around the concept of sport, and these works are in many museums around the world. We have been using sport as a muse for over 15 years.
We create many other projects too, but somehow we keep coming back to sport. For example, we are official artists for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and will have an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery there.
They commissioned a new art project from us depicting the dreams and aspirations of athletes and support staff associated with this summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games. That exhibition, "The Road To 2012", opens at the NPG in London on July 19.
We are the first artists to be allowed total access to the elite Chinese gymnasts, so the content of this exhibition and the book really is unique.
It was such an honour to be allowed into this normally closed environment. They did not impose any restrictions at all _ they gave us complete freedom within the training hall, and it really shows in the work we created there, which is intimate, tender and very honest.
How did you get an exclusive chance to photograph Chinese athletes? Are there any interesting experiences from the project you would like to share?
They simply liked our earlier work with sportspeople, especially the book Athletes. So they were prepared to take the chance and let us in.
It was a great honour to have this trust placed in us, as they could have felt they had more to lose than to gain by letting us photograph freely. Somehow they knew that we were only interested in documenting what we found (rather than trying to create scandals), and what we found there was simply incredible.
Of all the sports complexes we have been to around the world, this was the most inspirational, and we were moved to tears _ the sheer brilliance, hard work, dedication and talent of people we saw there.
It was simply more _ more of everything that training should be.
An American champion gymnast we know saw some of the exhibition prints recently, and he was stunned. He told us: "I used to think I trained really hard. Now, seeing these, I know that I was just playing."
We went to Beijing several times over a period of two years. It was constantly inspiring and so moving. As we were leaving at the end of our first five-day visit, the head coach, the legendary Huang Yubin, paid us a real compliment. "When you arrived here, you were new friends. But when you return, you will be old friends, and so you can turn the lights up to full without asking permission," he said.
Perhaps to an outsider that might not sound like much, but it was his way of saying: "I was watching you, and I know what you were doing. You understand how special it is here. Thank you for respecting us all, and I really want to see what you can create." That was hugely flattering.
The coaches and athletes were so warm, friendly, helpful, and seemed to really respond to us. Perhaps the way we worked was different from press photographers, and they felt they could trust us. Actually, we have been told that we "don't behave like photographers" at all. The National Portrait Gallery interviewed a lot of the athletes that we photographed, and apparently they all said: "Working with Anderson & Low wasn't at all like we expected it to be."
We still don't really know what that means, though.
As a duo, what is your working relationship like?
There is no distinction at any stage of the process. We are both involved in every aspect of conceptual planning, creating the works, right from the first idea to the final print or video piece.
We are very hands-on, and very passionate about it. We discuss things at great length, and that can become very passionate too, but we are always looking for ways to explore subjects from an unusual angle, and to find ways to make our work say more.
For this project, we really worked at creating a visual language which is not exactly naturalistic, but is instead very truthful _ communicating what we felt and what these boys and girls feel.
Why do you two focus on sport and athlete photography?
Athletes are amazing _ they are at once the most ordinary people you will ever meet, and the most extraordinary people you will ever meet.
They attempt (and frequently achieve) things which, by rights ought to be impossible for the human body to do, and they do it on a daily basis without giving it a second thought. What kind of person would do this? And what does that repetition _ the training _ do to them physically and mentally?
In a sense we are using sport as a window into the human condition, looking at people's souls rather than their achievements.
We are trying to do the opposite of the sports pictures one sees in newspapers _ those images are wonderful and are all about "that moment" when the goal is scored, or whatever it may be. Here, we are trying to do the opposite _ to breathe stillness into exertion, to show people everything that precedes those 10 seconds of glory or failure athletes experience.
The journey of an artist and a sportsperson is in some way analogous _ most people hugely underestimate how much work you have to put in, and at times it is so tough, but the final result can make it all worthwhile and drives you forward.
What kind of sport or athlete do you find most challenging to capture?
All sports present different possibilities. For instance, we have just completed this new project for the Cultural Olympiad in London, and the range was so diverse _ everything from swimming, hockey, cycling and gymnastics, to paralympic sailing and paralympic equestrian events.
The people were all remarkable and each sport presents a hugely different challenge.
