“I mean, a gravel track that has been here looking the same since 1968, a strip of grass, a couple of garden benches, sausages, quick winnings, and these fantastic animals that just explode in lightning-fast sequences of tightly packed primal instinct. It’s so uncompromising, so captivating – like looking into live fire! And you can just come from the outside and walk straight into the heart of the place and the people here, who are both incredibly passionate and completely down to earth and open. It’s a piece of overlooked Danish history that I simply had to write about!”
This is how the poet Claus Høxbroe expresses it to the danish newspaper, Politiken on April 29, 2019. It was precisely the same experience I had when I first visited the Kallerup track, a bit outside Hedehusene, Denmark. Greyhound racing is a niche sport in Denmark. It’s a community where people pursue their passion together, and where dedicated volunteers work tirelessly for the benefit of the community.
I don’t have much interest in either dogs or racing, but this environment is so unique that I return regularly to photograph and to learn more about people and communities. Høxbroe puts it this way:
The pockets of diversity that make our society rich and all of us wiser are becoming fewer and fewer
