One of my favorite moments this year was a “well-planned/complete surprise,” one of those instances as a photojournalist when you’re in the right place at the right time. It’s where a little information, mixed with a lot of luck, leads to a moment no one else captures.
The first day of the 2024 G20 Summit in Copacabana saw heavy police and military presence. World leaders, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, gathered in Rio de Janeiro on November 18-19 for Brazil's first time hosting the summit. With the G20 representing 85% of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population, tight security was in place.
Among the crowd, hundreds of Chinese nationals living in Brazil were in town to welcome President Xi Jinping. I met a couple who admired my camera gear and asked if I was photographing anyone specific. I told them I was just capturing the “color” and excitement of the G20. They excitedly showed me a shaky video of what they claimed was French President Emmanuel Macron jogging near Leblon that morning. They swore it was him. After I asked the wheres and whens, I deduced if this was in fact him, the President of France would absolutely be staying in the Fasano hotel in Ipanema, which frequently hosts celebrities like Coldplay's Chris Martin and more recently, Bruno Mars.
So, at 6 a.m., I headed to the boardwalk and scouted the area, hoping Macron would take the same route. For the next hour, I kept busy, photographing beach vendors, a Brazilian Navy frigate stationed offshore, and doing light tests, knowing I’d be shooting into the sun. At 7:10 a.m., I saw a group of 5-6 men jogging together on the boardwalk. I didn’t recognize Macron at first, but I raised my camera and started shooting. As they got closer, I tried to zoom out to 24mm, but my lens was stuck at 70mm. I kept shooting, and then saw Macron wave at me, while a security guard eyed me intently. My heart raced, I might have caught a rare moment, unlike the standard G20 images.
I waited an hour, hoping they'd jog back into the sunrise. But then sirens sounded, and I saw a motorcade of limos and vans with “FRANCE” stickers. I packed up and went home, content with my morning. The strangest part was that, after shooting eight U.S. Presidents in my career—each involving background checks, sniffer dogs, and Secret Service scrutinizing my camera gear—this time, it was just a man out for a morning jog with a few of his burly friends.
The pièce de résistance was that one of Macron's security detail was wearing a Flamengo shirt, one of Rio de Janeiro's most popular and iconic soccer teams.