Now one of the most viewed photos ever. Photo: Jerome Brouillet
TIME has compiled its top 100 photos of 2024. And among the images of war zones, assassination attempts, solar eclipses, natural disasters, and a viral hippo, is the iconic photo of Gabriel Medina that has come to define surfing’s second Olympic appearance.
Not only did TIME determine it was top 100, but the publication also chose it as one of the nine photos to include in its Instagram carousel post to promote the selection. The legend of the most-seen surfing photo ever continues to grow.
“Be it by impeccable timing or intentional framing, (these photographers) have created a time capsule that feels as if it’s about to be opened,” said TIME. “You can feel it in the perfectly captured moment of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina suspended triumphantly in the air after earning the highest single-wave score in Olympic history, a passing moment on television frozen in time by photographer Jerome Brouillet.”
Brouillet, the French, Tahiti-based photographer who snapped the shot, rose to stardom overnight. For one day of the Olympics, I kid you not, an interview with Brouillet was more sought-after than with Medina. I had to wrestle Brouillet away from the press to sneak into a restaurant for our scheduled interview. He had a humble 2,000 followers on Instagram and exploded to stardom with 200,000 followers overnight. At one point he pulled out his phone to show me the non-stop deluge of Instagram notifications.
“Seeing my photo as one of TIME’s 100 photos of the year is absolutely incredible,” Brouillet told The Inertia. “One-hundred photos out of 365 days in the digital age is an extremely elite selection. It’s a great reward for the work I’ve been doing in the shadows for the past 10 years, but I want to remain humble – compared to the 99 other photographers who captured stunning photos in environments that are sometimes truly hostile. I have the utmost respect for these photographers who risk their lives in war zones or during natural disasters, while I just have to protect myself from the sun and rain on a boat in Tahiti!”
“Since taking this photo, I’ve taken the time to focus on building my website for selling photo prints,” added Brouillet. “I’m in talks with different art galleries, and I’m envisioning different photography projects. With the swell season at Teahupo’o now over, I’ve also taken the opportunity to take a break since everything has been happening quickly since the WSL event at Teahupo’o and the Olympics. It’s been a really busy year!”
As Brouillet pointed out to me in Tahiti, non-action shots of sports are often the ones that remain memorable and transcend generations – such as the iconic knock-out photo of Mohammad Ali. That unassuming Medina photo, which no other photographer timed as well as Brouillet, has spread surfing more than any individual or entity ever could and will define the sport for years to come.
