Jules Beau

Joseph Jules Beau (20 April 1864 – 5 April 1932) was a French photographer and one of the first sports reporters, noted for pioneering the art of shooting sports and distributing the results to the press.

Early and personal life Jules Beau was born in 6th arrondissement of Paris on 20 April 1864, as the son of a pastry chef.

Beau was thus the owner of two studios, but rather than settling there and being a simple photographer, he instead decided to focus on outdoors activities because he was attracted to sport, producing numerous portraits of athletes of all categories, with a predilection for motor racing and cycling, but also Rugby union, track and field, boxing, rowing, wrestling, football, and Et cetera.

In his book Visions du sport, published in 1989, the historian and photographer Jean-Claude Gautrand, who published eight photographs of Jules Beau, stated that he can be considered "the first sports reporter in history".

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was inspired by photographs of cyclists by Beau for his advertising poster Simpson chain.