Doug's Gym: The Last of Its Kind

Norm Diamond photographed the last months of a dilapidated, yet beautiful old gym in Dallas, Texas. These stark images could have come from another era. They evoke themes of memory and loss. No modern gym looks like this. The owner, Doug Eidd, a grizzled 87-year-old, opened the gym in 1962. He could have emerged from a time capsule as well. His members did not care that the gym was run down or that Doug smoked cigars most of the day. They respected his expertise and loved the casual atmosphere he created. Although Doug was still fit, he did not resemble the muscle-bound figure of his youth. He knew that time would one day engulf him and the gym. This came to pass in the spring of 2018 when he was forced to close the gym on short notice. Diamond stayed to photograph the removal of the equipment as Doug's Gym drifted into memory.

Author: Norm Diamond
Publisher: Kehrer Verlag
Published: 02/18/2020
Pages: 112
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.85lbs
Size: 10.80h x 9.00w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9783868289480

About the Author
Diamond, Norm: - Norm Diamond is a fine art photographer with a previous career in interventional radiology. His work has been shown at the Houston Center for Photography, the Davis Orton Gallery, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. He has studied with Debbie Fleming Caffery, Sean Kernan, Keith Carter, Arno Minkkinen, Aline Smithson and, from 2013 to the present, he has been mentored by Cig Harvey. In addition to his teachers, he attributes much of his success in photography to his experiences as a physician. His current project, "Doug's Gym--The Last of Its Kind," chronicles the last months of a classic old gym in downtown Dallas that was owned and operated by the same man in the same second-floor walkup location for fifty-five years. The images depict a gym that is decrepit yet beautiful. Based on this work, Diamond was named a finalist in the Photolucida Critical Mass competition of 2018. He is represented by Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, TX.Flukinger, Roy: - Roy Flukinger is the former Senior Research Curator of Photography and former Department Head and Senior Curator of Photography and Film of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin, where he served as a curator since 1977. He holds degrees from Tulane University and from The University of Texas Austin, and has taught as an Adjunct Lecturer or Assistant Professor at UT and other institutions of higher learning. His service on professional boards has included, among others, the Texas Photographic Society, the Texas Humanities Resource Center, the Houston Fotofest, photolucida, the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus, the Houston Center for Photography, the Austin Center for Photography, and the Steering Committee for the Texas Historical Foundation's Historical Photographs Project. He is engaged in numerous other projects including presentations or articles on photographic history, collection management, and contemporary and Texas photography, as well as contributing essays to many publications each year.