THE GOLDEN MOMENT

It took me hours, days, nights, and weeks to decide what to do with this image.
After this photograph traveled around the world several times, appeared across all kinds of media, was shared on social platforms by public figures such as Lewis Hamilton, Neymar, and Kirk Hammett, and became part of countless discussions, one question kept coming back: what would I do with this life-changing photograph?

Many people asked whether I would release it as limited and numbered prints, and at what price.

Selling this photograph exclusively as a limited edition would certainly have been a more lucrative choice. Instead, I chose to keep it accessible. I wanted this image to remain available to everyone, rather than reserved for a few. Perhaps this was an excess of altruism, or perhaps something else.

For this reason, the smaller formats are offered as Open Editions, allowing more people to live with this photograph.

However, scale changes everything. At larger sizes, an image becomes an object, a presence, an experience.
To preserve the exceptional nature of this work at its most impactful scale, the largest formats are offered exclusively as Limited Editions.

All prints are produced exclusively on fine art paper, chosen for its archival qualities and long term stability, ensuring that each photograph can endure over time as a physical object.

The story behind the picture

I was covering the competition of the Olympic surfing games in Teahupoo, the sport that I love most in the world, for the AFP news agency.

On 29 July 2024, this morning at 9:30 am, the third day of competition, Gabriel got the biggest wave of the competition (and then the best score in the history of the Olympics. 9.90 out of 10!). I expected him, to make a kick out as he is used to at the end of big waves. I took eight pictures, at 10 frames per second. This is the fourth photo in the series.

I was unaware at that time when sending this photo among some others of my selection live to AFP that this photo would go around the world several times before I even returned to the marina!

In a few hours I had an amazing number of new followers on my social networks, and a dozen emails for interviews!The day after the end of the competition, Corona, one of Gabriel Medina’s sponsors invited me to meet him in Paris...

In hindsight, I appreciate the countless factors that could have prevented this photo from happening. The position of the boat, the height of Gabriel's jump, the wind conditions, and my own positioning all played a role in capturing this perfect moment.This is the beauty of photography: freezing time and capturing unique moments.

Medina and Jerome Paris