After the excitement of the Paris Olympics , there's no question of letting the Games fever die down : it's time for the Paralympics! The opening ceremony, orchestrated by Thomas Jolly, will take place on August 28th on the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde, marking their official start. This is the perfect moment for Analog Sport, an association led by Léo Cochin and his colleagues, to unveil a photo book retracing the journeys and aspirations of 10 para-athletes, with the exacting standards and aesthetics characteristic of sports photography . Challenges sometimes extraordinary, sometimes ordinary, immortalized through images and the words of those involved.

Agathe Pauli (swimming)

Alexis Sanchez (rowing)

Analog, an associative project aiming to train young people in film sports photography

Addressing the subject of disability in the sport to put the spotlight on para-athletes participating in the Jeux Olympiques, it is in the DNA of Analog Sport, a project launched in 2020, just before the lockdown. Since its creation, Léo Cochin has not lost sight of his goal of training young students in photography every year, free of charge. sport in film, more complex than digital photography. For the manager, this approach is deliberately demanding. Old-school photography requires, before improving, to spend time on the basics, it forces the photographer to work on his eye. As a result, if tomorrow students want to move on to digital photography, they will already be better ", explains the person concerned.
Each year, the class that follows the training carries out various sports photography projects, including a collective work during the summer, then the works are exhibited at the end of the year. Budding photographers are sometimes called upon for campaigns in the big league: for OM, Puma… Support and opportunities to demystify the world of photography and which gives some the desire to take a step forward and take the step towards professionalization. This is the case for around ten apprentices from the ranks of Analog Sport, since the creation of the program.

Para-sport, a field of excellence and performance, devoted to this collection of photographs and testimonies from para-athletes

This project is the result of a carte blanche given by the European Commission Representation to Analog Sport to highlight 10 para-athletes, their journeys, their relationship to sport and their discipline, and to document their training. The 200-page book includes numerous photos capturing their exertion during training, as well as interviews and transcripts of conversations held during special moments with these individuals. Disability is sometimes addressed, and some athletes share their perspectives on the place of disability in society. However, the discussion is never overt, and always within an environment conducive to warm conversation, avoiding the unfortunately still all-too-common discourse on disability and "resilience," which is sometimes tinged with pity and ableism. " We approach them, we listen to what they have to say, and we address the issue of disability as the conversation unfolds if the athlete wishes to discuss it ," explains Léo Cochin.

For the head of Analog, there's nothing like photography to celebrate para-sports. It's a simple, low-energy entry point that sparks curiosity… and directly engages our visual imagination, which is still too rarely exposed to para-sports. " Showing the public photos of para-athletes broadens their perspective, enriches their experience… it means that if I mention rowing, for example, you can subconsciously imagine para-rowing athletes. It also means showing images of para-athletes where, at first glance, nothing would suggest they have a disability, allowing us to simply look at sports photography, without the athlete or para-athlete status taking precedence ." All of this is brought together in a beautiful, artistically and aesthetically pleasing object, allowing us to experience these Paralympic Games with stars in our eyes.

Analog Sport is organizing the book release party on August 31 at 16 p.m. in its gallery located at 3-5 rue de Metz, 75010 Paris.