Cyrano de Bergerac (lost pictures from 2009)

It was a big surprise to realize that my first-ever theatre photo shoot was not published on my website. It used to be. The post was lost somewhere in the migration from CMSMS to WordPress many years ago.

The play Cyrano de Bergerac was a bold, passionate story filled with poetry, sword fights, and longing. Capturing its energy through photography was an inspiring challenge.

At the time, I was fascinated by Josef Koudelka ’s work, not specifically his older theatre photographs, but that’s where he came from. I wanted to understand that mindset. So, when some friends were involved in a theatre production, I asked if I could photograph their rehearsals.

They agreed to let me shoot the final rehearsal. We decided I would photograph the premiere when they saw the results.

Working with the theatre group Sentiment du Fer (it seems their website is no longer working, so I’ve linked their Facebook page) was a unique experience. The content of the play felt much more grounded than most of the live-action role-play events I had photographed, but the actors were far more expressive. They couldn’t just stand still—they moved, emoted, and performed constantly. That dynamic energy made a huge difference in the photos.

I briefly considered redoing the photo selection and post-processing before republishing these images sixteen years later, but I decided against it. Yes, I’d likely make different choices today—choose other pictures, process them differently, and keep the aspect ratios more consistent—but these are old photos. They reflect where my skills were at the time and what I could do with them. And that, in itself, is worth preserving.