Heroes

->The book

Heroes Exhibitions :

• Art By Friends / Annecy, France / 2019
• Evo / Seattle, Denver, Portland, USA / 2019-2020
• Studio Le Carré / Lyon, France / 2020
• Champery Mountain Film Festival / Switzerland / 2021
• Chamonix, France / Mediathèque / 2021
• Laax Riders Lodge / Switzerland / 2022

Serial work of 28 pieces
Etchings on negatives and silver-gelatin lith prints
40 x 50 cm / 2019
Limited editions of reproductions, signed & numbered on 30

Women riders have always been teenage heroes to me, independent and bad-ass girls, skating, surfing, snowboarding. Despite this, in the last 12 years that I have been a snowboard photographer, I barely shot any proper epic photos of women. I didn’t try hard enough. Back then girls were generally considered good for lifestyles and catalogues and boys for action ads. This, thankfully, is now changing. However, in the art of snowboard photography, there is still a lack of global photo works on women. I needed to make this project happen to partly fill this void, and to capture and illustrate the culture and progression of women in snowboarding.

I spent most of the 2019 and 2020 winters traveling to just a fraction of the numerous dedicated female snowboarders, documenting their lives in the streets, the backcountry and the snowparks. The more I shot and listened to their stories, the more I realised how vivid their love for snowboarding is, and how important this is. I am ever thankful to the riders who have welcomed me into their homes as well as the intimacy of their sessions. These colourful encounters opened my eyes and revived my own personal flame.

The photos are taken with the Pentax 6×7 medium format film camera, in Black & White. In the central body of work, I etch, scratch and paint onto the precious negatives before making silver-gelatin prints in the darkroom with an obscure process called lith printing. In the hope of creating timeless icons, I etched their words onto their photos.

You can purchase the artworks at my  shop.