The situation
Evy Leibfarth had agreed to a shoot three months earlier. She was one of the most watched paddlers going into Paris 2024 and had already crossed over well beyond the sport.
A week out, the shoot became two people: Sofia Reinoso, competing for Mexico, would be there too. I had never met either of them.
Three sessions across two days, in a city neither of them lives in, weeks before the most important race of their careers. Their training schedule set the hours.
Montmartre
Montmartre
Paris
My role
The whole shoot was built on one decision: photograph them as women, not as athletes.
Every image of them in circulation showed force — the sport is brutal and the photography follows it. I went the other way. Soft morning light, no flash, an editorial register, and the city doing the work in the background. The contrast between a gentle image and a violent discipline is the entire idea, and it is why the pictures do not look like anything else in their feeds.
The Eiffel Tower frames were planned, not found. Over dinner after the first session I proposed a second shoot the next morning, in full kayak gear, in a street I knew with the tower closing the perspective. The reasoning was straightforward: these two were about to compete at the Paris Games, and an image that says Paris in one glance would travel further than any of us could push it. It would also be the last window — the closer the Games came, the less time either of them would have.
That meant a 5:30 call. Pale light, empty street, no crowds. Evy’s set took about fifteen minutes. Sofia’s took about the same. Then the tourists arrived and it was over.
Paris — sunrise
Paris — street
Paris — street
Paris — sunrise
Paris — sunrise
Paris — sunrise