In Ciudad Juárez, for the luchadoras, the women who practice Mexican lucha libre, the ring is a space to be conquered, it is not just the place where they fight. The wrestlers enter the scene amid masks, glittering costumes and bodies in motion, turning what might look like a simple spectacle into a declaration of presence. In one of the most dangerous cities in the world for women, stepping into the ring also means challenging what is expected of them.

It is precisely within this tension that the work of German photographer Jana Margarete Schuler fits in. For years she has closely followed a group of luchadoras from Ciudad Juárez, moving from small neighborhood arenas to their homes and to the moments of everyday life. The result is Between Blood & Glitter, a series that chooses to look beyond the spectacular gesture of lucha libre and focus on the people who make it possible.

In Jana Margarete Schuler‘s photographs, the fight is only part of the story, because alongside the adrenaline of the matches she chooses to portray domestic rooms, waiting, friendships and moments of pause. The mask, a central element of the lucha libre tradition, therefore does not only serve to hide an identity: it becomes almost the opposite, a way of building a new one and making it visible.

Her images tell the story of women who have chosen to claim a language traditionally associated with physical strength and masculine virility. In the ring, the body is not presented as something to be protected or hidden, but as a tool of self-affirmation, the glittery theatricality of the costumes thus coexists with the harshness of the fights, creating a contrast that runs through the whole series.

The project comes from a collaboration with journalist and luchadora Kathrin Zeiske, who wrestles in Ciudad Juárez and who accompanied Schuler in getting to know this world. It is also thanks to this closeness that Between Blood & Glitter avoids turning its protagonists into mere symbols of a city marked by violence. Jana Margarete Schuler’s photographs leave room for their individuality, their relationships and their everyday lives, showing the complexity that exists behind every character built for the ring.

For this work Jana Margarete Schuler received the True Picture Award in 2025 and was included by LensCulture among the 25 emerging photographers to watch. The series has also been shown in international contexts, including Photo London and the Rencontres d’Arles, as well as the Festival della Fotografia Etica in Lodi and the Galerie Azul Arena in Ciudad Juárez.

This photographic series does not simply tell the story of lucha libre, Schuler’s project observes what happens when a group of women decides to claim a space, occupy it with their own bodies and never let it go again. Even when the match ends, that conquest continues outside the ring.