Guillaume Néry

Franck Seguin

apnée mer Nery plongée Seguin

Un mot sur l'oeuvre

This image is from a personal project. Franck has always been attracted to the underwater world and Luc Besson’s film, The Big Blue, stoked this passion. He met Loïc Leferme first, a great freediver from the same town as him, Dunkirk, and became his official photographer.
Through him he met other freedivers such as Pierre Frola. Loïc also introduced him to Guillaume Néry, his spiritual younger brother and encouraged Franck to work with him. This image was produced during a training session off the coast of Nice in spring 2006.
It was awarded a World Press Photo prize in 2007 in the « Single Photo Sport Feaure » category. This prestigious prize is awarded in spring and only takes into account photos taken during the preceding year. Jean-François Leroy, (founding director of Visa pour l’Image), who was that year’s Jury President, told him that there was no debate, it unanimously won first prize.

Le témoignage de Franck Seguin

We hadn’t randomly headed off. I’d noticed that when the sun was at its highest, its rays could clearly be seen converging under the surface here. So we dived at that moment, and were roughly 20m deep when Guillaume took up this posture where he is literally gliding.

Le choix de Jean-Denis

Words fail me. It is simply very beautiful and very soothing. Apart from being one of the great photographers, ambassador for Canon, comfortable in all sports and styles, Franck Seguin is also one of the great underwater photographers by virtue of his gift as a diver, and is even considered one of the greats in the history of the discipline by people in the world of freediving.