Photo-journalist gets the picture on women’s boxing

Girls in the Ring (Round One), by photo-journalist Lee Karen Stow, is the result of a tour of the city’s boxing clubs and proved a revelation for the woman behind the lens.

Ms Stow said: “If you talk to the Amateur Boxing Association they say women’s boxing is where women’s football was 20 years ago. The stereotypical image of women’s boxing is of tattooed, pierced, butch women, but these are mothers, students and schoolgirls – women from all walks of life realising that boxing not only keeps you fit, gives you self-confidence and self-defence skills, it is a competitive sport with a good social side.”

As part of her research Ms Stow joined St Paul’s Boxing Club and is now enjoying the best workouts of her life. “I don’t know if my pictures are improving but my biceps are,” she said.

Featured boxers include a solicitor, a European Championship Bronze Medallist and a mother-of-three who shed two stone and went from a size 14 to a size eight to 10 by working in the gym. Ms Stow is planning a wider project featuring female boxers across Yorkshire.

The exhibition opens at the James Reckitt Foundation Gallery, next to the Central Library, on Tuesday.