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The Artistry of Motocross - MXILL Feature
News Tuesday 28th November 2011 By Geoff Meyer
While Motocross is a sport that is all about endurance, conditioning and at times reckless speed, there is also something about motocross that makes our sport similar to surfing, boxing or BMX - a sort of cool factor that makes young kids want to watch or get involved.
Watching Antonio Cairoli dance his way around a circuit like Lommel or Lierop, or Clement Desalle forcing his way through to make a pass is what makes our sport exciting and popular, but it’s photographers and more recently video photographers who often capture that action and translate it onto the internet or into print magazines.
British photographer Gary Freeman, who owns the Photography company Redeye is very much a free-spirit and one of the most artistic photographers to ever shoot motocross. Having been involved in motocross photography for more than two decades Freeman continues to look for ways to improve his work and grow as a photographer.
I’ve known Freeman now for more than a decade, having met him at the Motocross of Nations, held at the St Jean d’Angely circuit in France back in 2000. Friendly, and at all times professional he also has a pinch of eccentric and he is for sure a perfectionist. All these elements make Freeman one of the real characters of the Grand Prix paddock and his knowledge of the sport and it’s riders is rather refreshing.
We decided to ask Freeman to pick out five of his favourite images and he give us his thoughts on the photo shoot and the rider he dealt with in the shoot.
Antonio Cairoli
My idea behind that photo shoot was to try and show the loneliness of training. In fact some people call it the Rocky shoot, because it reminds them of the Rocky Balboa film, about the boxer. Riders may sometimes train with others, but no one can go through the pain for you, so in that regard you're still alone - doing your own thing. Funnily enough the feature which went with those images wasn’t about training at all.
I also wanted to remove the colorful side of the sport. Motocross is a very colorful sport, but in the end what it comes down to is a gritty performance by the competitors - a blood, sweat and tears type of thing. I just wanted to show something very basic. Those weights and things like that just complimented the images.
Tony is great to work with, but most of the communication is done through Jill, his girlfriend who helps a lot with his day to day scheduling and coordinates his diary. Tony’s English is very good, but Jill’s is even better and Tony is very professional. He is a quiet guy and you can’t change that. In the photo shoot we had a problem with the first location we wanted to do the shoot, so we had to get in the car and drive for an hour. So we lost time, but for Tony it wasn’t a problem at all and we got to the new spot and we got on with the shoot. He’s a quiet guy and that is his character and you have to let people be who they are and not try and push then into trying to be something they are not. Tony will always be a quiet guy, and very modest and humble.
Sometimes it’s hard to get feedback from him, but on the other hand he always seems happy and the photo shoots always goes along well. He turns up and does what I ask him to do and he will work as long as I need him. He's a real professional and I'm grateful for the time he gives.
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