Les Danseurs

Description

Matthew Brookes's style of photography leans toward the natural raw emotion of his subjects. In his first book Brookes has turned his lens towards the professional male ballet dancers of Paris. For a year in the life of these dancers he took them out of their regular environment of rehearsals and performances and photographed them in a raw space where they were allowed to explore the physicality of dance in its purest form. This series of portraits depicts the pure physicality of a male dancer where they are asked to interperate birds falling from the sky. The introduction to this series of images is by Parisian prima ballerina Marie Agnus Gillot, who has worked with these dancers over the years and watched them grow and develop both as dancers and as people.

Matthew Brookes was born in England, grew up in South Africa and currently resides and works between Paris and New York. His speciality is fashion photography and portraiture and his clients include Armani, Cartier, YSL Beauty, Burberry, Berluti, David Yurman, Tommy Hilfiger, Zegna. His editorial clients include British Vogue, Vanity Fair, American Vogue, Interview Magazine, Numero, GQ, Details, Numero Homme, Vogue Hommes International and the New York Times Magazine.

British photographer Matthew Brookes - whose powerful study of male dancers, Les Danseurs, is published in the autumn - brought these women and their different characters to life in his images.--Suzy Menkes "vogue.co.uk" Les Danseurs Is a Book of Beautiful Ballet Man Candy--Margaret Fuhrer "Dance Spirit Magazine" Shooting in black and white, Brookes captures creativity in its most raw and intimate form.--Benazir Wehelie "CNN Photos" Toes point toward the heavens in one image, torso crumples over a bent knee in another, the dancers are pictured with a plain canvas backdrop wearing black tights or shorts -- leaving nothing to distract from their feats.--Miles Socha "WWD" Yet Brookes...is inspired by how these unassuming young men summon wonder and awe as they twist and leap into all manner of improvised shapes and controtions, most of them deliberately unclassical.--Miles Socha "WWD"