Romain Baro A L'AMERICAINE

Romain Baro first encountered the small but vibrant community of competitive French cheerleaders while photographing a French team playing American football for Le Monde in 2012. A graduate of the Nantes School of Art, Baro has always been fascinated with American culture. “I’m interested in the difference between the [French] perception of American culture and the reality of who those American teenagers actually are,” he explains.

Baro’s idea of cheerleaders was shaped by television shows such as Glee and movies such as Bring It On. Over the two years he spent following the cheerleaders to create his series "À l'américaine," he was impressed by their sportsmanship and their authenticity. “They wear uniforms, they have a lot of makeup on, but when you spend time with them, you understand they chose the sport for the competition, the fun, and to feel like part of a team,” he says.

The images were taken in various French locales and depict the cheerleaders competing, practicing and hanging out in their homes. Embracing signifiers such as pom-poms, ribbons and trampolines, the subjects could easily be mistaken for small-town American teenagers. But Baro’s depiction of his subjects is aesthetic and apolitical—something that would be almost impossible to do with an actual American cheerleader. The idea of the American cheerleader is embedded into the cultural notion of what “makes America great;" a French cheerleader, existing outside of the mainstream, can merely be. "My main goal was to learn enough of who they were [while keeping] the right distance," Baro says. “I didn’t want to manipulate their identity.” Baro, who also works as a graphic designer and a teacher, hopes to eventually publish the series in a book.

—Brienne Walsh

Photos © Romain Baro romainbaro.com