“The Fall” by Denis Darzacq

It took me some a little searching (I forgot the photographer’s name), but I finally dug up one of my favorite series of photos ever. Check out the story at Agence VU to see all of the images.

Also, This Lens Culture post has some more insights into the series and a short documentary video.

The Lens Culture author writes:

When I first saw Denis Darzacq’s photos of people floating in urban spaces, or falling from buildings (just about to hit the pavement), I was unnerved. They looked too real, I thought, but they couldn’t be real, they must be the result of digital manipulation, putting two photos together as one…

But the images are entirely real, as Virginie Chardin writes:

In 2006, Denis Darzacq asked dancers and athletes to perform jumps against backgrounds that he had found and prepared. Wearing ordinary clothes chosen in agreement with the photographer, the performers executed their leaps in these precisely defined settings.

Everything had been prepared in advance. Everything was ready. The models launched themselves into space. There is nothing false in these scenes . These moments really occurred. There is no fiction, no retouching or special effects. Photographed in the courtyards of buildings or in streets in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, in Nanterre and in Biarritz, these young people were just being themselves, simply performing jumps in a modern urban setting. And the photographer shot the images, intervening only to give a few guidelines as to their movements. However, at the moment of the leap, chance and gravity also intervened.

Want More?

Some of his new work (the series Hyper — equally amazing) can be seen at this Lens Culture post

And here’s his personal site