Always inspirational (Patreon)

When I posted recently about how I find myself realising just how influential some old material was to my photography, like the early French Rugby Calendars, or Dieux Du Stade, the most inspirational part was Francois Rousseau.

Believe it or not, watching those DVD's was a lesson in a big photo shoot. In the teaser above of the 2013 calendar shoots you can see the scale of the production. They had a freaking tall ship for goodness sake which also meant another boat for the film crew to shoot from.

Francois has such a beautiful visual language to his work. He shoots elite, masculine athletes but doesn't pose them in macho ways. I think like me, he appreciates the vulnerability in men, even if they are muscular elite sportsmen.