originally from Dordogne, he photographed the greatest sportsmen

Ffinal of the 1998 World Cup. It is July 12, it is 9:30 p.m. Zinédine Zidane rises into the sky of Saint-Denis and cuts the trajectory of the ball centered by Emmanuel Petit before the Brazilian Leonardo. Goalkeeper Cláudio Taffarel reacted too late; the doorman can only watch helplessly as the leather moves into his net. Photographer Lionel Hahn has (for eternity) frozen this moment, engraved in the history of French sport.

“This image and that of Zidane's acrobatic control against Italy launched my career,” breathes, twenty-six years later, the Périgourdin. He exhibits around a hundred of his most beautiful sports photos in a setting as unusual as it is majestic, the former Bank of France in Périgueux. The man who has been a professional since 1994 is affable when explaining his work and by extension the greatest sporting exploits of recent decades.

Memories of Bolt

The world records of sprinter Usain Bolt or pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis? Lionel Hahn was there. Tom Brady's historic sixth Super Bowl victory? Lionel Hahn was there. The gold medals of Léon Marchand or Teddy Riner? Lionel Hahn was there. “It’s a great job, I’ve met incredible people,” modestly relishes the man who grew up with his mother Jeanine, a teacher in Sorges. “When I think that it was my little one who did all that with his camera, it makes me funny,” smiles the retiree.

She adds: “Do I like sports? Not particularly, that's what my osteopath tells me. But it doesn't matter, I don't need that to recognize that Lionel's work is extraordinary. » This maternal proselytism is corroborated by the order book of the person concerned. On July 15, 2024, Périgordin at the 25 Cannes Festivals and the 17 Super Bowls was selected by the organization of the Olympic Torch Relay to immortalize judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou at the top of the Eiffel Tower; At the end of November, his photograph of Rafael Nadal leaving the central court of Roland-Garros for the last time was selected among the finalists for the prestigious Richard-Martin Prize, the major international photo competition organized by “L'Équipe”.

Sherpa and gliding

Its author contextualizes: “It had rained almost the entire match, so the roof was closed. When the last point is played, the sun rises and shines over the court. I see him greet the audience by raising his arm and I start. » Or the art of seizing the right moment, like that famous July 12, 1998. “It was a jungle to stand at the edge of the pitch before kick-off. I had 25 kilos on my back, in sherpa mode, and I started running towards the corner post. I was in the lead pack when I took a cable. After gliding, I told myself I was going to stay where I was. »

A photo from this series will be reproduced on a double page by “Paris Match”. Other images will make the front pages of “L’Équipe” or “Tennis Magazine”. But it was the photo taken in 2018, during Super Bowl LIII (American football), which gave Lionel Hahn his marshal's baton: a double page in “Time Magazine”, an American weekly with a circulation of 3 million copies .

California

He says: “The New England Patriots had just won and everyone wanted the photo of Tom Brady, who had just become the most successful player in history. I hear a cameraman communicating with his production, telling them that they would have Brady and Julian Edelman (best player of the game) in five minutes. I didn't let go of the guy, for five minutes he had become my best friend. It came down to experience. » It was developed over more than twenty years in California. Until 2020.

It was the Covid-19 epidemic that forced the return of Lionel Hahn, his wife and three children, to Périgord. In less time than it takes to put on an FFP2 mask, the Périgordin had to abandon the red carpet of the Oscars and the Staples Center sports hall for a life in the countryside. Los Angeles is not Trélissac. “The adaptation was complicated, our second left in his cocoon,” concedes the fifty-year-old. Without filter.

Until January 4

Lionel Hahn's exhibition-sale, entitled “Emotion in motion”, is open in the premises of the former Banque de France (place du Président-Roosevelt) in Périgueux, every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., until 'to January 4. Around a hundred photographs are on display, including around twenty from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Entrance is free.