The 15 metres line

Jun 11, 2026

I’ve mentioned a few times that one thing that I photograph is rugby. Being tight to a contract, I don’t post about it to often as I don’t want to create tension. I hate that. I had my share moments of tension but that didn’t put me off, during the season you will find me at rugby matches with camera in hand.

Regarding photography, it looks like I was always attracted to repetitiveness - I like projects that photograph the same thing again and again. I remember the project of Tomiyasu Hayahisa in Germany where for a period of 4 years he photographed the same tennis table and life around it. If you search for it, you will find that the project won a Mack Award in 2018 and it is published in a book. Tomiyasu’s project wasn’t the start for me but the motivation and the support.

In 2016, I started my own long term project based on something repetitive. I didn’t have anything clear in mind (still don’t have) where this project will go or end but, I like doing it. So, what is it about? Rugby, of course, and to be more precise, the 15 metres line on a rugby pitch. Compared with other lines that mark the pitch, the 15 metres is one of the dotted lines or dashed if you like.

From the start I’ve imposed myself a few “rules” to follow: all images will be taken at f/2.8 with a focal length of 200mm, no people in the images and no alteration of images. A bit later, I’ve changed from “no people” to “no recognisable people” as a few times I’ve managed to capture “parts” of people and that made interesting images. What I found interesting is the fact that every 15 metres line is different: some are very well visible on an astro-pitch, some are so old that are not just paint but “embedded” in the pitch and some are not even straight.

Sometimes I think that this project is going on for far too long but also, I don’t want to stop it. I have a collection of almost 200 photos and I still don’t know what I’m going to do with them. Yes, 200 photos of a line! It sounds mad but to me, it isn’t. At some stage I wanted to put them in a book but who would like to look at photos of a line? So until I decide what I’m going to do with them (oh, any suggestion is welcomed) I will keep taking photos of the 15 metres line. I leave you with some of the photos.