“What renders it most intriguing and special in modern times is its pure, historical, brutal, and sensual aesthetic.” SINCE 2650 B.C., men across the Middle East have been stripping down to cowhide leather trousers, dousing each other with buckets of olive oil, and wrestling atop slickened grass in the pursuit of pinning down opponents or lifting them high above their heads. Still practiced today, oil wrestling is a slippery test of strength and dexterity, and, in many ways, sets a standard for masculine behavior and public image wherever it’s practiced. And yeah, that’s an odd thing to say about what may be the most homoerotic sport on the planet.
Recently, Milan-based photographer Aleksandar Crnogorac traveled to Edirne, Turkey, to capture a rare array of portraits of the Kirkpinar, the nation’s…
