Exquisite Mayhem is a combination of Theo’s two works.  His work as a photographer at the Grand Olympic Auditorium photographing Wrestling matches and also another project called “Apartment Wrestling” Where he would photograph bikini clad models doing wrestling poses.  This started as a project by publisher Stan Weston to try and boost sales for his magazine “Sports Review Wrestling”.  This brought a lot of anger and hatred towards Weston by the wrestlers who complained about having their photographs next to scantily clad women posed like wrestlers. Unfortunately for the wrestlers though, sales of the magazine skyrocketed and it continued to get published.

Theo Ehret was born in Germany and later moved to the US where he would eventually become the staff photographer at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.  From the 60s to 80s he would photograph the boxing and wrestling matches that took place there.  Capturing legends such as Muhammad Ali, Andre the Giant and much more.

Not only did he capture the matches themselves but he would also photograph the backstage brawls, the weigh-ins and captivated crowds.  Capturing all parts of the excitement the Grand Olympic Auditorium had to offer.

Theo grew up with some photography experience as his uncle had his own camera shop.  After Theo moved to the US he attended the William Mortensen School of Photography.  This is where he had to photograph nude models as part of his course at the photography school but it seemed he didn’t have much interest in this style of photography at the time.  Which I found to be quite interesting as he then goes on to produce some fantastic photographs of nude women posed like wrestlers.

What I also find interesting is that Theo didn’t really have much of an interest in wrestling either, to him it seemed like it was just another job. As an introduction, Theo is interviewed by Cameron Jamie, one of the editors of this book and one quote in particular stuck out to me.

C.J. “You were never fond of the wrestlers, even as showmen?”

T.E. “…I liked Blassie as a human, but not as a wrestler because I had no interest in this stuff…”

Again, this is surprising that he didn’t really have much interest in nude photography or wrestling but still he goes on to create some amazing photographic pieces of art combining both wrestling and nudity.

This book is in some way a tribute to Theo’s work and quite frankly it is just a fun book to flick through.  Whether you believe that wrestling is fake or not I don’t think that matters because this book is still very enjoyable. I’m not a huge wrestling fan myself but I can appreciate the showmanship of it all and the entertainment value.  With these photographs I feel Theo perfectly portrayed that entertainment value that wrestling has to offer.

Back when the “Apartment Wrestling” photographs were first released they would have been seen as an erotic fetish to drive single male audiences into buying the magazines.  Now though I feel like these photographs can be seen as a work of art rather than sexualised advertising.  Having the photographs juxtaposed next to each other I feel compliments them both very well.

It’s not really a difficult question as to why you would put these two works together as wrestling itself is quite sexual in nature.  Men and women wearing barely anything grappling with each other.

Exquisite Mayhem is a fun and exciting read, whether or not you’re a fan of wrestling I think you can still appreciate the photographs in this book. The comparison of wrestling in the ring vs wrestling in an apartment makes this a very unique piece of work.

For someone who claims that this was just a job and that they had no interest in wrestling you can really see the passion he had in these photographs, and because of this I feel like this book is a great tribute and memorial to Theo Ehret’s work.

I do also have to commend both Cameron Jamie and Mike Kelly who edited this book. They didn’t a fantastic job of sequencing the photographs and telling the story of Theo and his fascinating work.

Photographs by © Theo Ehret. Edited by Cameron Jamie and Mike Kelly. Published by TASCHEN