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Catch Cory Le Guen's posed jumps in 72 countries and counting

Love those pictures of yourself jumping high in the air with your arms outstretched and pulling funny faces? Avril-Ann Braganza talks to Cory Le Guen, who's been leaping around 72 countries... and counting

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It's always the same pose: jumping high, his right hand raised over his head, his left hand folded across his chest. Cory Le Guen, 28, has around 100 pictures of himself leaping in front of famous landmarks in 72 countries, including Cyprus, Poland, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Chile, Senegal and yes, India too.

The French citizen began travelling long before he started working as a flight attendant, but started clicking his trademark pictures when he was in New York with some friends in 2008. "I wanted to do a 'jumping picture' as I thought that it would capture a funny expression as well as a nice photo," says the man who uses only his iPhone, which he finds "easy, light and very powerful".



 "The first thing I do when I arrive somewhere is to get my 'jump picture'. I didn't want to do the same pose for all the snapshots initially, but I realised that I was doing it naturally. It was quite strange — when I was going through the first five pictures, I found that I had struck the same pose in all the pictures. So I decided to go with it," says Cory.

He's had his share of embarrassing moments and difficulties. "In New York, my trousers tore right in the middle. So I walked into a shop and bought another pair," he laughs.
But while he has travelled a lot, he could not get a pic in every country. "In countries like Saudi Arabia and Iraq, I couldn't get a photo because the authorities were right behind me, but I managed perfectly in North Korea. I try to click my photos at some of the city's most famous monuments. But not all countries — for instance, Mauritius and Seychelles — have iconic monuments, so I try to make sure that people catch sight of a famous landscape or street, if not a man-made structure in the background," says Cory, who tries to get a picture whether on holiday or a layover.



His trip to North Korea has been his favourite for many reasons. "First, because it's very hard to enter this country. Second, because I wasn't allowed to take the picture and I had to click it quickly before the military soldier caught me. Third, it was a coincidence that I was wearing clothes similar to the colour of their flag."

Sometimes, when he is on a layover and does not have a colleague to take the picture, he asks passers-by to help. "But my fiancée Claudia is the only one who gets it perfect at the first click. Usually, others need at least five attempts to get it right and when they don't speak the same language, it's even harder for them to understand what I want. It was the toughest in Beijing, but we made it happen!"



"Once you start travelling, you cannot stop. It's a real passion," he signs off. You can check out his images on Instagram at Corykats.

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