ALINGHI SUI 100

32nd. America's Cup Finals

Valencia, SPAIN

Ivo Rovira Augé (Barcelona 1971) It was in 1994 when the director of the nautical magazine Yate contacted me, seeing an exhibition of my photographs, to propose to photograph an Olympic sailing regatta. Until then, I had never had the chance to see the Barcelona skyline from the sea. It was love at first sight. Perhaps due to my lack of knowledge of sailing and my interest in artistic photography, I began to photograph regattas in a very heterodox way. I was based much more on aesthetic and lighting concepts than sports. Almost without realizing it, I became a nautical photographer starting to work for different leading teams such as Caixa Galicia in IMS and Transpac, photographing all the regattas on the national scene and some international ones, and also collaborating for different magazines such as Yate and Yachting World ... In 2004 the possibility of moving to Valencia arose and after photographing for a few months for ACM the preparations for the celebration of the 32nd America's Cup, I signed with the Swiss team Alinghi, defender of the AC, as an official photographer until the final victory in July After 2007. Having seen the disagreements in the offices for the celebration of the 33rd AC, I decided to change course in my professional life but keeping close contact with the nautical scene. To this day. When Valencia became the venue for the 32nd America's Cup, I imagine that it was not due to its strong winds but rather to its technical and strategic component. Boaters such as Brad Butterworth, Murray Jones, Joan Vila, Ed Beard ... fit perfectly into that racing concept. After many days in the Valencia race course, I rarely had the opportunity to play with the weather factor to combine action, light, wind and waves. June 23, 2007 arrived and the final began which the entire team had worked so hard for. Climbed in the helicopter, I portrayed the different days of competition, with little wind and a lot of emotion until on the penultimate day, the wind appeared and with it the clouds creating Chiaroscuro. The sea of ​​salty water became, in a second, a sea of ​​oil with the SUI 100, standing out in it, sailing towards victory. I keep this unforgettable image in my memory, when it is conjugated in it, the happiness for the victory of my team and the happiness for being able to gather in that image what I have been waiting for so many days and months: Action, light, wind and waves.

Canon 1DS MarkII, 500mm, 100 ISO, f5.6 , 1/1000