Henri Thibault

I came to photography by accident. My father Jean-Pierre Thibault called me one day to suggest that I join the agency he had founded in 1962, specializing in motorsport. I had the chance to come in through the back door and learn all the facets of how a photographic press agency works.

From a small hand in the Black & White laboratory to the archives, I learned the basics of photography on the edge of automobile circuits in the 80s and 90s.

At the beginning of the significant media coverage of sport in general, the agency opened up to other disciplines. It was during this period that I was asked to deal with selling photographs of boats by organizing a "Sea" department.

After a professional break at the turn of the century, during which, among other things, I was able to restore a few cars. (NR: including the iconic Matra MS1 1965 from Beltoise), I took over the viewfinder to edit subjects for the press.

Born into a family where the automobile was its raison d'être since its genesis, I bathed all my childhood with racing cars and their history as a backdrop.

It's not the shapes and colors that interest me, it's what's behind the lens.