Thoughts on the Viral Olympic Surfing Image

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the viral kickout image of Gabriel Medina taken by Jérôme Brouillet. I can easily see why it is appealing, but the fact that it went viral above all of the other images from Teahupo’o may show a lack of understanding for the sport and how the media covers it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great image and I am not a surf photographer. But, the photographers who were out there that day shooting from the water and from nearby boats have a vast collection of images of the very best surfers getting barreled in one of the heaviest and most dangerous waves in the world, so it seemed odd that this was the image chosen to represent the event above all others. The viral shot captures the exit from that wave, but doesn’t show the wave itself. Again, I am not being critical of the image itself, just of what the public is sometimes the most drawn to. I would imagine that there were images from the event that tell more of a story and got little to no attention. I would imagine that, Jérôme Brouillet, the amazing surf photographer who took the image also has a vast collection of shots from the event that photographers and athletes alike would have selected ahead of this one.

Accomplished surf photographer Tim McKenna makes many of these points in the interview below and expresses his criticism of what the mainstream media focuses on in how they cover the sport: https://petapixel.com/2024/08/05/legendary-surf-photographer-roasts-viral-olmypics-photo/

Interview: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-HEjKtvetY/