ENTRY DESCRIPTION
The Alchemy series is an ongoing collaboration between photographer Michel Leroy and a wide range of professional athletes with varying body types that explores the tension between physicality and identity. The images are simple in form, but rich in ideas and emotions. Each moment captured is a celebration of athletic confidence and vitality at its most pure. Moments of sculptural balance, anticipation and strength define the graceful lines and organic gestures of these vivid Black and White images.

In this figurative series the artist creates body-positive images that are exaggerated and explicit without sexual objectification. By emphasizing form over identity, Leroy seduces the viewer to reveal empathy for body acceptance that transcends the self-image obsession of social media.

The creative process is of great relevance and bears witness to the labour-intensive technique reminiscent of a Daguerreotype in the pixel age. The photographic style was developed over a year of experimentation with a mixture of analog and digital elements including camera, lens, lighting and post-production workflow to achieve the unrelenting clarity and unique dark metallic look. The images are also notable for the tactile permanence of flesh revealed through the in-camera technique that enhances textures and brings out details unseen by the casual glance.

The choice of dark bodies against a dark background focuses the viewer’s attention on form and shape over the sexuality. The physical process of transmuting the skin metallic unites the constellation of skin tones to illuminate physical radiance and emphasize the physical similarity of bodies over ethnic diversity. The result of these creative decisions are images that are familiar at a glance but invite critical inspection and are open to more than one interpretation.

AUTHOR
Michel Leroy is a New York based entertainment and advertising photographer with a produced style that captures an authentic connection to real personalities. From celebrity chefs to olympic athletes, the images reveal a level of comfort and vitality shared amongst friends.

Driving a mile past the bend of the main Boulder Route, after the pavement ends, is the log cabin where Michel grew up. Milk, eggs and butter came from the O'Shenko ranch down the valley, meat came from their own herd of Herefords, and vegetables came from the garden. Every month the family would pile into the Suburban and drive down to the ranch supply stores in Livingston, Montana. What seemed like a journey across the world at the time was the beginning of a lifelong thirst for travel. From the end of that dirt road to his office in Manhattan, Michel has always enjoyed new places and made fast friends.

The good fortune of his early career afforded Michel the opportunity to travel the globe assisting magazines and companies with the common goal of photographing the people that define our time: from China’s leading industrialists in Shanghai to Nobel laureate economists in Paris to former President George W. Bush in the White House.

Repeatedly, corporate clients including The Food Network, Adidas, Nike, Intel, Lenovo, GE, Pfizer, Bayer and L'Oreal have trusted Michel to connect their brands to customers through images with insight and humanity. His editorial work has appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, People Magazine and The Times (UK).

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