It’s actually quite difficult to hit someone with a weapon-like object, I found. No, I don’t mean difficult to playfully battle someone like children might but to swing at someone with intent. I had been given a sword of sorts – short, sturdy, well balanced, and constructed primarily of durable foam. This was an object designed to give the holder a most realistic impression while minimizing the chance of physical harm to an opponent. Here I was, the first time, holding this “sword” in the shadow of a practiced opponent; my defeat was imminent, certainly. The true question was actually the extent of my embarrassment in defeat. I would need to battle with honor — as though life truly hung in the balance — or risk humility.

The value of this level of battle realism was something I recognized to a degree several months earlier when I was in Nashville, Tennessee. There, in Ellington Park, a Belegarth Live Action Role Play (LARP) group practices every Sunday. Each player arrived dressed in costume (or garb) and the group altogether was large enough to give the impression that Nashville might be the staging ground of a full-on and imminent battle assault on Mordor. An impressive presentation.

My work on LARP started against the backdrop of Nashville suburbia but came to me full force in Rochester as I stood in a similar park holding my fake sword. I had learned to appreciate the sport but the level of realism actually achieved by all this suddenly became much more immediate as I was about to actually take a swing at someone. It took me more than a few rounds to mount my first full-on attack, satisfied that I wasn’t truly about to harm one of my photography subjects. Finally I began to understand the validity of a fantasy-bound activity that’s so very real in an age where virtual reality permeates our common understanding of modern games. Perhaps actually fighting in a field, face to face against real human opponents could be more fun and beneficial than a computer game… Because, for me at least, it certainly is more disconcerting.