Into The Woods

An area of fantasy and warfare, a paintball site. Into the woods adults go and play, enacting an exhilarating fantasy of violence, tactics and strategies. Deep in the woods, an area associated in childhood fairy tales as a site of change, outside of normal rules and everyday life, men and women play at war. I am documenting the theatrical arenas, where teams battle in a survival of the fittest.

The paintball company manages the land, creates the combat zones and leads the games; For one day, with a real natural environment, not a video game, the players have a first hand experience of their own basic instincts for hunting, warfare and survival instincts, usually suppressed or reshaped in their daily life within a rigid societal structure.