Words Donny O’Neill Photos and Captions Dom Daher five years of working at Skieur magazine, the France-based ski magazine that launched his photography career, pro ski photographer Daher de-cided to break out on his own. Before he could make the full move to freelance, he was approached by some office veterans who told him to sue his employer to make enough money to purchase a better camera. In France, overtime must be paid when employees work more than 35 hours in a week, and it’s a common practice to threaten legal action against an employer when leaving a job. Daher was certainly working long hours for the magazine, and providing them with pho-tography, writing, and editing, but the idea of suing the company that gave him his first opportunity—despite the promise of a financial head start in the freelance game—was simply out of the question. “I said, ‘This isn’t right.’ Skieur helped me and gave me every-thing,” says Daher. He elected not to sue and the magazine rewarded him with free office space and a monthly stipend to shoot all winter long. “[Daher] is everything, but not a liar. He is someone mod-est and honest, with himself and others,” says Laurent Bel-laurd, the editorial director. “He is the nicest photographer you can work with. He doesn’t behave like a star at all.” In the overly competitive world of freelance photography, where every sharpshooter is jockeying for position and exposure from brands and publications, Daher took the high traverse. It was a business decision on the principals that have guided his career, for better or for worse. Over the last 25 years, Daher has cemented his professional success with a persona that can only be described as compassionate, friendly and ready to lend a hand. His willingness to help and grow has helped him become the Freeride World Tour’s lead photographer for over a decade, and linked him with ambitious projects with the likes of Red Bull and Swatch. Still, his nice guy character has rarely wavered. That tends to stick out in outdoor media, and serves a striking foil to the life Daher was born into. The 44-year-old was born in 1976 in Marseille, a city on France’s southern shore with a warm climate and a reputa-tion for its juxtaposition of easy living and crime. Marseille is five hours from the mountains—and a world away. The oldest city in France is more melting pot than croissants and champagne, a diverse mix of French, Algerian, Moroccan, Armenian, Italian, and Senegalese descendants tucked up against the Mediterranean Sea. The international cocktail has created a vibrant local culture, but also a complicated history of corruption, violence, and poverty—consistently ranking it one of the most dangerous cities in Europe. Soccer great Zinedine Zidane hails from Marseille, as do a number of renowned climbers and alpinists like Gaston Rébuf-fat, the first man to climb all six of the great north faces of the Alps. But skiers there are few, and ski culture hardly exists. AFTER 084 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 14, Issue 1: Page 84
