Brutal Beauty: Faces of Australian Roller Derby – Gunther Hang
Roller Derby has grown, explosively. In 2001, there was only one roller derby league in the states. Today around the world, there are 500 and counting. The skaters are all female, a quarter hold graduate degrees, a third have children under 18 & a third are married.
Roller derby is a fast-paced full contact team sport that requires speed, strategy and athleticism. Roller derby girls are above all, empowered. From it’s DIY origins to an organisation ‘run by skaters for skaters’, this sport is unique in so much as it is entirely run by women.
I wanted to document the individual. Whether it be their stage persona or themselves. The subjects are not posed, but captured. The light is beautiful yet specular. The subjects raw and the color vibrant like their aliases. The sport needs images that represent its ethos. It demands it.
