This was quite an interesting photo shooting project in which I was happy to participate and make great shots with a friend of mine Julien Dupont who spend some quality time in my hometown. Everything was well organized and the weather was on our side too so the end result was lots of energy and fun packed in a few days.

The French extreme motorcyclist, Julien Dupont, while travelling around the world and shooting the third sequel of the movie “Ride the World” also visited Belgrade. During his four days in the Serbian capital, Julien explored every nook and cranny of the city, both in the city centre and its suburbs. The main goal of the visit was taking photos and shooting video material which gave me a special part of this project. We had chosen in advance a few locations that we found especially attractive for taking unique photos. That was the second time for me to work with Julien, so I was aware of what I could expect from him and his unbelievable stunts. We had an excellent communication and the shooting seemed like carrying out the project that had been perfectly prepared.
At the age of thirty Julien Dupont is still in the process of overcoming one of the greatest challenges – how to settle down? It could be said that we are very alike and that we are familiar with each other’s work. We have been keeping in touch since our first shooting in Sarajevo two years ago.
This intrepid young man from Lyon (France) has been occupied with the extreme motorcycling, a discipline known in the world as TrialX, and is regarded as one of its founders. TrialX requires riders to pass “the obstacles” such as stairs, buildings, balustrades, jump from one building onto another and perform many other remarkable stunts.
We found such obstacles in many different parts of Belgrade. Julien didn’t want to waste a minute spent here. The photos we were shooting inspired both of us to continue working. Besides my knowing the sport inside out and Julien’s extraordinary skills, one of the most important things was the maximum limit we could have reached to get the unique and perfect photographs.
The inspiration for such ventures and his attempts to transcend human limitations in motorbike riding Julien finds in unusual buildings and monuments. He is constantly proving that there isn’t anything impossible by doing stunts all over Belgrade, but also in many other locations, like Acropolis in Greece, Count Dracula’s Castle in Romania and the building of the Centre of New Industries and Technologies in Paris.

While he was shooting the movie „Ride the World“, Julien was travelling all around the world.The movie was based on his stunts he had been doing in most attractive world capitals, on locations that people find unsuitable for motorcycling. He already made two movies and he says that the footage from Belgrade will be the excellent starter for his third sequel.
Asked about his impressions about Belgrade, Julien said: This is the first time I am in Belgrade. I like the city very much, and it’s especially great from my point of view. I always judge the city by opportunities and locations attactive for my sport. I really loved the night life and I was overwhelmingly impressed by the the beauty of the girls I saw“, he smiled.
Answering the question about the work itself and the photo session with me, he made a comment which also, in a way, expresses my experience of working with him:
“Working with Predrag is always interesting, especially because of his artistic approach to my sport. He is always searching for the best angle for the perfect picture and doesn’t hesitate to tell what’s on his mind regarding the best position of the body and the bike. He is a real professional who knows exactly what he wants and that’s why I’m more than satisfied to have his photos in my portfolio. Compared with other photographers, Predrag is a real artist, very thorough and he spent as long as it needed to prepare all the equipment for the photo shooting just to make sure that he would get the perfect photos. Really, he is one of the best photographers in the world and I’m looking forward to cooperating with him again!”

Additional information:
Information on the motorcycle: Julien is riding a motorcycle made by a French company GasGas. This is a small but very powerful 6-speed machine with fuel tank capacity of 2.5l. Tyres are inflated at 0.8-0.9 bars and the weight of the motorcycle is 75 kg.