Franck Seguin

Franck has covered all the major sporting events in his long career, and has specialised in in-depth sports features with a particular focus on freediving. He remains in demand for the quality of his work. Impeccable timing and the ability to keep a cool head in intense situations, along with his skill in building mood through the considered use of shadows and colour, elevate Franck's sports photography to an artistic level.

As well as being exhibited at many French photography festivals, Franck has twice won the Les Photographies De L'année photography prize. In 2007, he won first prize in the World Press Awards Sports Features category. And in 2016-2017, he was among the 170 photographers (current and historical) whose photographs were selected to be displayed at New York's Brooklyn Museum in its exhibition, Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History from 1843 to the Present.

Franck's passion for freediving photography continues to shine through, despite the risks that the sport poses to its participants and the photographers who document it. He has built close relationships with the champions of the sport, including former world record holder Loïc Leferme, also from Dunkirk, who tragically died in 2007. Franck was the only photographer allowed under the water for the entirety of Loïc's record attempts, and together the two men pushed the creative boundaries of freediving photography, with Franck sketching out his ideas above water and Loïc helping to realise them in the deep. The two were also among the first to shoot digitally underwater without the use of flash.

The breathtaking images he's brought back from the depths of the world's oceans have earned him significant acclaim. His photo of 24-year-old Guillaume Néry training for his attempt to break a world freediving record off the coast of Nice won him first prize in the Sports Feature category of the 2007 World Press Photo contest.

How do you think the sports photography industry will develop in the next 5-10 years?

"The equipment will become lighter and more compact, it will stay connected to the cloud and offer voice control, enabling images to be transmitted even more easily than today."


What is the most useful piece of advice that you'd offer to sports photographers who want to raise their game?

"I think you have to draw your inspiration from others without imitating them. You need to express your personality and you have to be yourself. You have to have a point of difference. For instance, I might restrict myself to using just a 600mm lens to cover a football game in order to get different images."

Franck Seguin

"When you're working underwater, everything becomes more complicated. You have to concentrate on several things at the same time – the way you breathe, the way you swim, the way you handle a camera and lens inside underwater housing – and it makes everything that much more difficult. Your time is limited, so you absolutely need to prepare well for a dive and to have a clear vision of what you are going to do in terms of images. You can't afford to rely on luck being on your side."

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