Sport, glory and despair.

Mika is a long-term documentary photography project that focuses on a French professional kickboxer, Mickaël Pignolo.

The series takes a look at the man behind the athlete and examines the situation of high-level athletes in France who struggle to make a decent living from their art because they are not recognized as professional and/or receive little support from government institutions or sponsors.

In 2024, in a context of high media coverage of the Paris Olympic Games, Mickaël is selected as a torchbearer in Arles. Despite the scope of his career, his record of more than 40 victories to his name, he continues to be haunted by the doubts and dilemmas that can sometimes constrain his career as an athlete.

It is through Mickaël that we enter the life of a professional fighter. A fighter in the ring, as in life, the series paints the portrait of a fierce man with a big heart, a fair and proud person, a loner facing himself, a top athlete at the end of his career and above all an Arlesian to the teeth, the pride of an entire city