"Heroes" - Women in Snowboarding by Jérôme Tanon

From the legend that brought you 'The Eternal Beauty OF Snowboarding' has been shinng a light on the "Heroes" of snowboarding, that being the women of snowboarding. But, he needs your help to bring his amazing project to completion so we can all enjoy it in all of it's glory. Here's the link to the Kickstarter page: Click here

The Story:

Women snowboarding progressed radically in the last decade, yet there is a great lack of global photo works about the girls, and that sucks, really. They are total heroes, absolute rippers, independent and bad-ass women, and their total commitment to snowboarding has to be documented. I travelled around the world during almost two winter seasons to meet them, hear their stories and photograph them in the streets, the parks and the back-country. I was blown away not only by the insane level of riding, but also by the sheer passion they put into their snowboarding. It really did feel like family. Come and be part of the first book dedicated to women in snowboarding. 

The book "Heroes"
+/- 200 pages, 24x29,5 cm, hard-cover, self-edited.

- Reproductions of the main body of work : 28 silver-gelatin lith prints made in the darkroom.
- Pentax 6x7 scans of negatives.
- Personal stories written by the snowboarders themselves.
- Artworks by female snowboard artists. 

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Zoi Sadowski-Synnott - "Future"

The snowboarders
Nirvana Ortanez, Anna Gasser, Elena Könz, Estelle Pensiero, Robin Van Gyn, Leanne Pelosi, Marie-France Roy, Annie Boulanger, Crystal Legoffe, Ylfa Rúnarsdóttir, Desiree Melancon, Melissa Riitano, Elena Graglia, Ivika Jürgenson, Hana Beaman, Naima Antolin, Reira Iwabuchi, Alexis Roland, Zoë Vernon, Sina Candrian, Mia Brookes, Christy Prior, Marion Haerty, Silje Norendal, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.

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Marie-France Roy, Leanne Pelosi & Robin Van Gyn
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Desiree Melancon

Photography
Shooting action sports with a medium format Pentax 6x7 -fixed lens, manual focus, 10 photos per film roll- is a pretty stupid challenge of its own, but the quality and depth of field is something else. Etching, scratching, painting, bleaching my favourite negatives of this series is also an absurd feeling, but it's a statement. I'm ready to destroy my most precious negatives to bring out more personality, more texture, more words. The old-school darkroom process is called Lith and it's a nightmare to control. The payback is a high contrast, texture and pepper marks, natural sepia and beautiful tones. The only paper which gives me this result being out of production for many years, the last remaining stock of sheets is a treasure to me. No test sheets, each one had to be good. Combing all my experiences in analogue photography, copper plate etching and darkroom printing, from start to finish, this process is an absolute make-it-count, all-or-nothing commitment to the art. 

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Funding & distribution
Jérôme is funding the book by himself, so he really needs your help. The costs for design, printing & shipping a first edition of 1000 copies is of roughly 14.000 euros. Your pre-orders will enable this book to come to life, and that means A LOT. He will sign it and ship it to you in September, and it will be out for the public in October. Art-shows are also in the charts for the upcoming winter.

If you want to help fund this project, order a batch of books for a lower price, or reach out regarding potential venues for art-shows, contact him at [email protected].

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Elena Graglia - lith print
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Marie-France Roy "King" lith print
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Jérôme in the darkroom. Silver-gelatin lith prints 40x50 cm
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Drypoint etching of negatives.