“Some of those early crowded CLAW days, you’d have to show up an hour early and get a space,” says local photographer Billy Hunt. “You could not move from that space for the entire event because it was just a big ol’ box of sweaty, crazy sardines.
“Now it’s more comfortable, but I really do pine for that sort of close, cramped, uncomfortable cockfight kind of feeling to the thing.”
Hunt, however, is one of the sweatiest sardines in the tin, and one of the most excited to be there. When he first caught wind of the Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers, Hunt says that he simply showed up and started snapping photos.
| For a gallery of Billy Hunt’s photos from A CLAW to Remember, click here! |
“I think the next time I showed up, someone described me as ‘the official CLAW photographer,’” he says. “I’m not sure how that title came about, but I’m definitely the official CLAW photographer now.”
Now CLAW has its official yearbook. Titled A CLAW to Remember, the book collects character portraits and battle scenes from the femme fatales of the forearm, from Betty Rocker to Mile High Missy. And you can get your first glimpse on Friday from 6pm to 9pm at The Bridge/Progressive Arts Initiative, where Hunt will sell copies of the book during an exhibit of more CLAW photos. CLAW wrestlers will autograph copies of the book and give a few demonstrations during the event, and local filmmaker Brian Wimer will sell copies of his short film, CLAW: Women Getting a Grip.
In addition to being the sanctioned CLAW paparazzo, Hunt also performs with CLAW’s house band, Straight Punch to the Crotch, and rocks a mean keytar during “I Love My Claw.” (Sample lyric: “I sailed the seven seas with my claw! Now don’t you want to party with my claw?”) He’s a fan of Bridezilla and says that, when Sparkles joined the CLAW scene, “I really think that was a transformative event.” He’s part of the crowd, and so he knows how the crowd functions, and casts a showman’s lens on wrestlers, screaming superfans and even the other photographers. And there are plenty.
“I think if you just photographed arm wrestling—no offense against arm wrestling—but it could get tedious because it’s the same thing,” says Hunt. “What I think is really interesting about the experience is the crowd, and that includes the photographers and videographers and all the cacophony. I think it just adds to the madness, which is what I’m trying to photograph anyway. So I say, ‘The more, the merrier.’”
