Professional photographer specializing in trail running, Alexis Berg made a stop last weekend at the Menestrail de Moncontour in the Côtes d'Armor. His book Grand Trail is an invitation to travel the world by visiting races without limit of distance and altitude.

Alexis, the Côtes-d'Armor are not unknown to you ...

Indeed, I came here in 2006 during my journalism studies at IUT Lannion. At the time, I was 20 years old, playing rugby and getting involved with the Puffin club in Perros-Guirec. I keep a good memory of this passage on the Pink Granite Coast as I lived in a house open to the sea in Ploumanac'h. An exceptional setting!

How did you become a trail photographer?

A bit by chance. In 2013, I accompanied my big brother Frédéric on Reunion Island for the Diagonale des fous, an ultra 168 km with nearly 10,000 meters of elevation gain. I made a video of his race and I also took some photos that were broadcast on social networks. These photos were published by two magazines including "Nature trail" which then offered me a report. From that moment, I started taking race pictures.

And to link the reports?

I took a liking to it and the idea of ​​a book came quickly enough. I had some experience in publishing. Guides, stories of adventure written by coaches and athletes already existed, but there was not really a book that paid homage to this unique sport. In January 2015, we started and we worked continuously until October. Grand trail was released the following month at La Plage editions.

What does this book tell?

This book does not come from twenty years of expertise and knowledge of a community. It is more a journalistic work that tells the most beautiful races in the world and the history of those who practice this sport. Grand trail has so many portraits that are meetings with simple people, outstanding athletes. For 20, 30, 50 hours, these men and women explore their limits, confronting each other, but especially themselves. All trailers say it: a day of racing is a life that runs with moments of happiness, sadness, questioning. My job as a photographer is to look for this palette of emotions that can be revealed on events as long and intense.

Unlike your brother, you do not run. What did you learn from these trailers?

I know photographers who practice trail running. They can measure for themselves the level of performance of those they photograph, to say how champions are champions. For me, runners are people who go looking for something other than sport. Trail is a modest and spontaneous thing, a simple act in a complicated world. It's almost a reflex in our urban era, an attempt to get out of everyday life, a gesture of freedom. A personal quest in a daily life that lacks adventures. What often struck me was the variety of stories that led people to practice trail running. Some are sick and will run to heal. Others get divorced, lose their jobs and change their lives.

Was there a meeting that marked you more than another?

The person with whom I have the most connection is a Lithuanian rider named Gediminas Grinius. I met him many times. It was someone who started running late at the age of 35. He was a soldier and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after participating in various campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. While he was not a runner at all, he realized that running could heal him. He began to run a lot to become one of the best ultra-trailers in the world ... This is the kind of story that symbolizes the peculiarity of the trail. It is quite rare to meet people who, in a few years, can become as strong and reinvent a life with a sport.

Grand Trail book (324 pages) published in 2015 by Editions La Plage. Photographs: Alexis Berg. Texts: Frédéric Berg. Preface by Joe Grant. Jenn Shelton's face. Price: € 49.50.

Grand Trail Extra book (120 pages, paperback) released in 2017 at Editions Mons with unpublished photos. Price: € 19.50.