Alexander Namrok

When I was a teenager, my father opened his own self-defense gym. With a background in Krav Maga from his time in the French army, he was eager to pass on his skills to others. Soon after the gym’s opening, I began attending.

Like many boys growing up with their fathers on the periphery, we didn’t talk much about feelings. Instead, the gym became a sanctuary, allowing us to connect as father and son. He thought it was his responsibility as a father to teach his son how to defend himself. Here, our bodies communicated, conveying what words often couldn’t. Lessons were imparted through repetition, passing knowledge from one generation to the next.

My aim is to bring my medium and practice of photography into my father’s arena: the dojo. As a way to reconnect with him by staging our relationship for the lens within the place where we learned to love through embodiment.

As the project unfolded, not knowing exactly where it was going, I started noticing a change. Through these staged movements and interviews with my father, it laid the foundation of a newfound connection and, by effect, a newfound empathy between us. The creative sphere we created allowed for us to reconnect without judgment.

Here, our worlds collided and combined, and the more our bodies performed for the camera, I became confronted with the fact that the time my father and I have together is limited, precious, and should be cherished. The project is not only about the two of us but acts as an invitation for the viewer to reflect on their own relationships with their parents and perhaps may spark some new conversations along the way.