Traditional Sports & Gatherings

Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling

Edirne, Turkey · 1 July 2006
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Kırkpınar was one of the traditional events I had wanted to photograph for a long time. When I entered the Er Meydanı in Sarayiçi, Edirne, on 1 July 2006, I was interested not only in the outcome of the wrestling matches, but also in the life that had formed around this centuries-old tradition. Wrestlers competing simultaneously at different points across the field, referees moving among them, the sound of drums and zurna, spectators in the stands, and wrestlers waiting for their bouts created a large and constantly moving scene. While one contest continued, only a few metres away other wrestlers were preparing, resting or waiting for their turn.

The preparations before the wrestling interested me just as much as the contests themselves. The wrestlers prepared their kispet, washed and covered their bodies with olive oil. The moments when they helped one another revealed the relationship between men who would soon face each other as opponents, yet belonged to the same tradition. On their oiled bodies it became difficult to hold an opponent; hands, arms, heads and shoulders locked together in a constantly shifting balance. The black leather kispet, the sheen of oil on the body and the July sun made the physical character of the struggle even more pronounced. When I moved in close, the bodies of two wrestlers sometimes became almost abstract forms; at other times, a single facial expression seemed to convey the entire weight of the contest.

But Kırkpınar was not limited to the wrestling in the Er Meydanı. I also tried to observe the small events taking place around it. One of these was the sight of some spectators noticing the free olive oil provided for the wrestlers and reaching PET bottles through the railings to obtain some oil for themselves. This everyday scene, unfolding immediately beside the serious and ceremonial atmosphere of the wrestling, showed me another face of Kırkpınar. I pay particular attention to such moments when I photograph, because years later what brings an event back to mind can sometimes be not the main event itself, but the small human stories that develop spontaneously around it.

While working on the field, I did not look only for the most energetic moments of wrestling. I photographed the wrestlers waiting and preparing, helping one another, the referees intervening, wrestlers falling to the ground and returning to the struggle, different bouts continuing at the same time, and the moments when a result was decided. In wider frames I tried to show the crowded Er Meydanı and the many contests taking place simultaneously; in closer photographs, hands, faces, kispet and intertwined bodies came to the foreground. The presence of colour and black-and-white photographs side by side was also a natural result of the way I worked that day and the different photographic tools I used.

For me, Kırkpınar was a much broader world than a sporting contest. With its wrestlers, the tradition of oiling, the kispet, referees, drums and zurna, spectators and the small events taking place around the field, it was a living form of a culture passed down through generations. With these photographs made in Edirne on 1 July 2006, I tried to document not who won a wrestling match, but how Kırkpınar was lived in the Er Meydanı and around it.

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