The solitude, apprehension and doubt of the athlete in the lens of Émilien Jacquelin
Émilien Jacquelin comes a long way.
The contrast is striking between its current third place in the general ranking of the World Cup and the two previous seasons which were thwarted, between a burn-out in 2022-2023 and a podium counter only unlocked during the eighth stage in 2023-2024. During this period, the camera was a better ally than skis or the rifle for him.
“I saw that I could express myself through this, not only take photos for others, look for beauty, but also express myself. It really came about like that. And so at some point, it became a big part of my daily life, especially during this period which was more complicated for me in terms of sport. I always had my camera with me, whether it was ten minutes after a World Cup or on the bus to get there,” he explains, admitting a need to express himself differently.
Photography offers him the possibility of “playing with a reality that surrounds him, with the emotions he feels”. She even served as a real mirror for the 29-year-old biathlete.
While he focused on the emotions of the athletes, Émilien Jacquelin neglected the joy of the winner. He focused on those that punctuated his daily life as an athlete at that time: loneliness, apprehension, doubt or the excess of energy without guarantee of being rewarded.
“These energies, these emotions were anchored in me, it was much easier through photography to make them resonate by looking at those around me. »
The biathlete from Villard-de-Lans had no trouble finding them in the others. He then worked to bring out the athletes’ inner quests by immortalizing these scenes from their daily lives that they consider normal, but which are not normal.
“When I looked around me, it jumped out at me very often,” he admits, evoking the example of Antonin Guigonnat riding an exercise bike in a hotel corridor.
Camera in hand, the Frenchman had a realization that seemed to zoom out to find a more relevant wide shot. From the same world, Émilien Jacquelin was able to discover a new perspective through his lens.
“It’s incredible, we are so focused on one thing that we end up in situations that are either crazy or put ourselves in impossible states and that was the case for me at the same time. I lived it, I experienced it and at the same time, I took photos of it. »
Does this introspection and passion make him a better biathlete? There is no photo according to him.
“It’s true that at one point, it helped me find my way back to enjoying biathlon. »
READ ALSO – All the results of the biathlon season
