Hustler, December 2001
Book Description
It is human nature to enjoy watching other humans compete in a one-to-one physical challenge. Naturally, there are sexual connotations to such an activity, notably in a derivative of pro wrestling known as "apartment wrestling." Pitting women clad in bikinis - or, having been stripped bare by their opponents, nothing at all - against one another in a staged photography set, apartment wrestling is what many a male fantasy is made of, and there is no better way to appreciate the merits of this unique and rare "sport" than in the classic photographs of Theo Ehret.
Theo Ehret spent a good twenty years, beginning in the sixties, as a professional photographer in the Los Angeles pro wrestling scene. By the early seventies, he expanded his subject matter to include a new genre, apartment wrestling, which was gaining popularity. Using elaborate sets and meticulous lighting, Ehret was a master at capturing his subjects in the most compromising of catfight positions. Wearing feathered hairdos, lip-gloss, and determined grins, the girls in Ehret's photos look like they're having a ball pinning one another to the floor and tugging each other's hair. Capturing the theatrical, sensational, and erotic aspects of his subject matter with healthy dose of objectivity, Ehret's style is both lighthearted and sophisticated.
Edited by artists Cameron Jamie and Mike Kelley, Exquisite Mayhem features the best of Ehret's work from the sixties to the eighties, bringing together Ehret's pro wrestling and apartment wrestling images. With over 400 illustrations, an essay on wrestling by Roland Barthes, biographical photos, and an interview with Ehret, Exquisite Mayhem is not just for fans of wrestling - it's an adventure into a lesser-known side of one of America's most popular forms of entertainment.
