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In 2017 and 2018, Norm Diamond photographed an old downtown gym in Dallas, Texas. It was an urban fixture for many decades until its recent closing. Diamond
(b. 1948)
is a full-time fine art photographer after having a career in
interventional radiology. He has studied with Debbie Fleming Caffery,
Keith Carter, Arno Minkkinen, and has been mentored by Cig Harvey since
2013. (Links to articles on a previous series: Texas
Monthly, The
Dallas Morning News, and Lenscratch.) Archival
ink pigment prints: 15 x 20 inches (38 x 51 cm.), edition of 12: $1,200
(add archival matting/backing: $50)
Order here |
| The words on the sign “Reducing & Weight Gaining” inform anyone on the street that this gym comes from another time. This gym opened in 1962 and closed on March 31st, 2018. Doug Eidd, the owner, was 87 years old. He had been thinking quite a lot about closing the gym and retiring. When the rent was doubled, he knew it was time. |
| The gym was rarely crowded, especially in the early afternoon. Whenever there was no other member besides me, I begged Doug to turn off the fluorescent lights, which did not do justice to photographs of the gym. The peeling paint, sagging wooden plank floors, and ancient equipment spoke to a different era, which I relate to. |
| These gloves hung from the fuse box door for many years. Sitting next to the window, their appearance changed with the variations of the natural light coming from outside. I never saw the gloves look better than they did in this image, which I made the very first day I visited the gym. |
| Doug owned and operated Doug's Gym for 55 years in the same second floor walk-up on Commerce Street in Dallas. The gym was his life. A widower for many years, he came in six days a week. Sitting in his chair, he conversed with members who wandered in. He had a low threshold to expound on his theories of why the world is falling apart. And while sitting at the desk, he smoked his cigars and filled out his lottery tickets. |
| This bank of lockers was situated behind the boxing ring, which explains the two ropes from the ring in front. Windows at the very rear of the gym provide some backlight. |
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This
is an old way to exercise the forearms. There are now better methods.
But they don't have the metaphor of the rope pulling a weight.
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Entrance
hallway cutouts
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According
to long-time members, this scale was inaccurate by 20 pounds - on the
light end.
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| This is a circa 1935 photo of John Grimek, one of the most famous body builders of his era. He was known as the “Monarch of Muscledom.” He participated in the weightlifting competition at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, finishing ninth. The ceiling is made of pressed tin. I have no idea what the red pipes were for. |
| Sauro is a DJ and part-time model. A native of Italy, he came to the gym most afternoons with a methodical workout schedule, concentrating on one muscle group each day. On this particular afternoon he asked Doug to spot him while he tried for a personal best. |
| The gym had many female members, many of whom took boxing lessons from Jeremy, who worked under Doug. Kim's fierce intensity mesmerized me. |
| This chair fascinated me. An entire roll of duct tape must have been sacrificed to "redecorate" it. I photographed it many times in different lighting conditions in various areas of the gym. |
| Doug knew he was stepping away from his life’s work, but he also felt ready. At 87 years old, he feared getting sick and not being able to manage the gym. |
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With the rent increased and the neighborhood becoming gentrified, Doug knew it was time to quit. With barely two weeks’ notice, he closed shop. It took another two weeks to clear out the heavy equipment. Some of the machines had been there since the beginning. |
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