He’s a cop who made a photo book about other cops. His name is Arnaud Ropars. He collected the testimonies of his colleagues, moving, often trying, in his work Cop looks. And he photographed them, for black and white portraits. But how can a police officer also become a photographer?
His partner constantly photographed him, Arnaud Ropars started taking photos of her too. Then, he discovered the Gurushots app, which offers small photo competitions on the themes of landscape, still life, portrait… And he got into the game.
Even using his partner’s reflex camera, the civil servant trained himself as an autodidact with tutorials on YouTube for tech. His brother-in-law, photographer for the newspaper The Teamand friends also advised him on his photos that he published on Instagram: the framing, the focus on the eyes, the contrast…
Arnaud Ropars is also inspired by the portrait painter Lee Jeffries – whose style and grain of photos amaze him. The man who wanted to become a police officer since his childhood worked on his series of portraits in his own way and shares: “The moment of shooting is truly a catharsis for me, it’s a moment outside of time.”
Bac police officer for fifteen years
For this unique experience, everything around the photographer and his model no longer matters for the police officer who entered the Nîmes police academy at the age of 22: they exchange, they discuss, they laugh. He creates. To his somewhat particular request to take their portrait, some colleagues replied that they had “nothing to tell“and found their lives normal. But they took the time to chat”and everything came out“, shares Arnaud Ropars.
“I have written texts which are extraordinary not only in terms of experience, but in terms of humanity.“, enthuses the police officer who has been part of the Bac for fifteen years. His texts have also made him question his job and his way of reacting to certain situations.
Would he have had the greatness of soul of Michel? Does he agree with Rudy who thinks that the human brain has its limits despite everything, when he witnesses the death of a colleague in intervention? Arnaud Ropars becomes thoughtful: “What changes some, what shapes and builds man, can also create cracks in others.“
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