In a world captivated by tales of extraordinary human abilities, APEX is an extensive collection of images that shines a spotlight on the boundaries of human sporting achievement.
The images go beyond everyday sports photography by inviting you to explore the power and fragility of the human form; representations of time spent pushing the limits of our capacities, mental, physical and emotional; and the value of those moments when they exist in silent purity.
Behind each image is a story of sacrifice, discipline, and a profound sense of purpose that transcends the ordinary. The strength of the APEX collection lies in isolating each athlete from the competitive context, allowing viewers to witness the seemingly effortless grace that can only be attained with years of purposeful practice and commitment. We take an intimate look at the performance of each individual, revealing the broader implications of human activity as a metaphor for our resilience and our relentless pursuit of excellence. The APEX collection stands as an unparalleled testament to the outstanding abilities of top tier athletes that highlights the intrinsic connection between human potential and the fortitude of our collective spirit, offering an exceptional and evocative perspective on the human experience.
About How the Collection Began
The collection was started as a ‘Covid project’. Looking for ways to keep occupied during lockdown, I went through my collection of unpublished sports images that I had mostly taken in the few years before our enforced confinement. As a personal project I’d recently photographed the French aerobic gymnastics team, of which my son was a member. Following a messy feud between the gym and the federation, the team was about to be disbanded and I wanted to have a visual record of their extraordinary skills. Looking to build on this work, many more images have now been shot and added to the collection mostly relating to sports that we’ll be seeing at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The photographs taken with modern digital cameras looked markedly different to the few taken with film. The digital images were sharper and had more dynamic range, whereas images shot on film had greater contrast, softer hightlights and noticeable grain. So I spent countless days on some of the film images ‘remastering’ them to ensure that the collection had a cohesive look. The athletes in the images have intentionally remained incognito in order to maintain the focus on the idea of movement, without getting distracted with who’s who. No names, no fame, no stats. Just the strength of the images.
About Black & White
For the sake of consistency, all the images in the APEX Collection are in black and white. However, beyond the pursuit of uniformity, there are other compelling reasons to steer clear of colour, at least for this particular set of images. We tend to see colour first, and colour is useful, for example, for conveying emotion. Yet, unless colour is used as a purposeful creative element, it can be a distraction. Removing the distraction of colour encourages the viewer to focus more on the movement of the athlete, the gesture the athlete makes during that movement, and the graphic form of the athlete recorded by the camera at the very precise moment the shutter is released. In other words, if colour does not help convey the message then it has no place in the image. Moreover, in the absence of colour, images also take a step away from reality, and this move towards abstraction can add a sense of timelessness. Creating impactful monochromatic images is not as simple as just discarding colour. In my experience, crafting these images as fine art photographs is more challenging than their color counterparts. There is a range of often little understood techniques to translate colours into suitable tones of gray; to separate subject from surround; add three-dimensionality; and to manipulate contrast to add depth to the image. Each one of these images has been meticulously crafted – and some remastered from the original analog film image – to do justice and add a degree of excellence befitting of their subject.
About Alan Brooke
I am a fine art photographer based in Aix Les Bains, France. I started my career photographing stories for local news organizations in Hull, UK, and before long began photographing athletes for advertising agencies, and meeting my wife-to-be on a shoot for Speedo. Together we moved to Bourg Saint Maurice in the French Alps to photograph winter sports. Raising two very athletic children, and continuing to work with world class athletes, I developed an ever deeping respect for their hard work and sacrifice. Overtime the visual style and conceptual underpinnings of the work began to evolve. By isolating each athlete and removing any context of competition the viewer can focus on the seemingly effortless grace that can only be achieved with years of dedication and an extraordinary level of expertise. [Official Website]
