This whimsical headline, with its pun on the marriage vows, refers to a story of violence: a wedding reception gone horribly wrong, where the phrase 'punch drunk' took on a literal meaning.

The compositional source for this image was Piero di Cosimo's 'The Fight between the Lapiths and the Centaurs'.

The painting depicts a scene from a classical legend that describes how the centaurs, part horse and part human, were invited to a wedding by the human Lapiths. The centaurs, fuelled by drink, attacked their hosts.

For his picture, Hunter chose a cast comprising two ethnic groups - redheaded and Far Eastern - and arranged them on the steps of Hackney Town Hall, a popular venue for wedding receptions.

Hunter makes several direct quotations from the painting: a kneeling woman tending to the stricken figure of an injured man; the woman in the red dress having her hair pulled.

In showing the fight between two distinct racial types, Hunter gives his scene a symbolism that goes beyond the simple retelling of a local story. This is not just the clash of two families at a wedding; it is a clash of cultures.

In his response to the painting, Hunter is addressing the issue of racism. The ancient legend and the contemporary story are both examples of how misunderstandings between different groups of people can escalate into conflict. Hunter's photograph provides a powerful connection between myth and reality.

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