Hanging out, riding bikes, and talking about aliens.
Tomas Lemoine is a Marseille local devoted to freedom of expression. Bikes have been the thread continuously stringing the different parts of his life together, from BMX racing through to Red Bull Rampage. While being focused on riding, art was always a part of his identity, often combining the two as they are both key vehicles for personal expression. From drawing, to painting to making music under the moniker "Lil Moine", his projects evolve with him, just as his riding does. Tomas got together with Theo Acworth, an English photographer based in Innsbruck, Austria. They spent two days shooting in Marseille with the intent of creating a peek into Tomas' life. This zine is the result.
Tomas Lemoine is a hard person to summarise. A born-and-bred Marseillais, he has as many layers as the city itself. Growing up racing BMX, it was a chance encounter with mountain biking that took him away from the track and into the bowl.
He might have left the confines of the racing world behind him, but the bike control definitely came with him. After several years racking up wins on the competitive MTB circuit, he now finds more joy making music under the moniker of Lil Moine, running his brand Stratos, and simply riding his bike.
After several years racking up wins on the competitive MTB circuit, he now finds more joy making music under the moniker of Lil Moine, running his brand Stratos, and simply riding his bike.
SRAM met up with Tomas and action sports photographer Theo Acworth in Marseille for a few days of riding and shooting. Read some quotes from Theo below on the collaboration.
“We spent two days hanging out in skateparks exploring abandoned factories, visiting monuments and walking through the woods. Then we spent a day making a mess with paper, scissors and ink in our Airbnb.”
“I’ve actually never worked like this with someone before, and the collaborative process was really fun and often yielded unexpected results that were much cooler than my original ideas.”
“I suppose if I had to summarise things, I’d say the zine is a direct product of play between Tomas and me. That’s it. We went outside and had fun playing together, and this is the result.”
The project is something of a collision between Tomas and Theo. Photographs are printed and drawn on with crayon and ink pens. Textures of the city and the body are scanned. Found-photography is cut and pasted. Words and thoughts are handwritten on the collages. The resulting zine is a loud, imperfect impression of two days of shooting together in and around Marseille.
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