In 2016, Belgian team NTD Racing was taking part in Mettet Superbiker, the biggest Supermoto event in the world, bringing together riders from all moto disciplines (road and off-road racing). Team NTD Racing had a good run in the 2016 French Supermoto Championship with three riders: Thomas Decaigny, younger brother Nicolas Decaigny, and Bruno Baulard. All three were riding Husqvarna bikes. On this picture, Thomas was gearing up for a Free Practice session in Mettet on the Friday, as I was taking a series of paddock shots for the team.

I had the opportunity to follow these three riders throughout most of the 2016 season on the French Championship. The “getting ready” phase is always one of my favorites in pictures: mechanical checks, concentration, gear checks… Each rider also has his habits, his rituals, his pace.

I really like to get to a point where, I hope, riders are less aware of —and less disturbed by— the camera. At that point, I am able to capture more spontaneous moments, more natural expressions. Here I was working with a fish-eye lens, this allows less conventional results. Then I chose a really dark treatment, it adds a fairly hard side to the picture, and it focuses on Thomas by eliminating a lot of unnecessary details.