This photo series is from the Hua Hin card and Sylvie's 271st fight. As it happens they for me became a meditation on the way that Muay Thai's ideological hypermasculinity is played out among its non-ideal types: boys, foreign men, Thai and Farang women, as part of an agonist Art, expressing an agonist Buddhist culture.

This boy was at one point surrounded by at least seven men (and no women). There was something extraordinary, sitting beside the mat and watching his hands be wrapped. Children very seldom receive any focused attention (at least by my witness), but in occasions such as this it felt nearly as a rite, with all the men focusing themselves, as if a magnifying glass catching light.

The subject of children fighting in Thailand is much contested, often involving criticism from Western perspectives of ideal childhoods. But first is to understand what is actually happening in the culture. Hopefully these photos add to that. The camera has a way of settling into a closer reality.

Above, the shielding and focusing of men. He is an expression of them.

Below, this boy is turning back to see the decision from the referee after the fight. He is visiting his opponent's corner. What follows is his reaction, the water poured on him from the opposing corner falling off of him.

Below. The head is the holiest point on the body, its highest point. The mongkol protects it. The intensity of the blessing.

Below. The casual gathering at ringside, a few phones up filming or live streaming.

Above, the fighter is the focus of everyone. He is not crying, it is only a momentary face. This pyramid of arms says a lot.