Muay Thai / Thai Boxing © Sara Rubinstein

As regular readers will realize, during the few hours I spent reviewing portfolios at NYC Fotoworks I met several great photographers. I think the vetting process serves good purpose.

Sara Rubinstein and I talked about this body of work and naturally I was thrilled when she contacted me to let me know she'd taken my advice about how to show the series. And with that, here's the story:

"Minneapolis based photographer Sara Rubinstein spent six weeks outside of Bangkok, Thailand, documenting the lives of a group of Muay Thai Boxers. Muay Thai, also known as Thai Boxing, is the National Sport of Thailand. In a culture where it is considered bad luck for a woman to so much as touch the boxing ring, Sara enjoyed the challenges of creating this series in a foreign environment. Children as young as 5 or 6 participate in this 700-year-old martial art that includes punches, kicks, elbows and knees. In impoverished rural areas, these children stand to make money for their families or camps by winning matches. A mother of young children herself, Sara hopes to return to Thailand to continue exploring this project and publish a book on the subject of young children and Muay Thai. This project, born out of a personal passion for martial arts, was a new and inspiring challenge from the typical commercial and editorial portrait and lifestyle work that Sara photographs in the United States."

All images © Sara Rubinstein