Tom Cockram photographs the bedraggled bikers of Biarritz

Every year bikers and surfers descend on the French town of Biarritz for the Wheels and Waves festival – a three-day celebration of all things surf and motorcycle. London-based photographer Tom Cockram travelled to the event to take photographs of this unlikely combination, which are currently on show at the Hoxton Gallery in London. “I spent three to four days in Biarritz,” says Tom. “I wanted to give a sense of the people and characters who attend rather than document the event itself.”

The grizzled bikers are captured under the flat white skies of the French summer, with each image presenting a moment of pause that sits in stark contrast to the noisy and energy in the pictures of the motorbikes in action. “I was lucky that the whole trip gave me an opportunity to explore three of my passions – surfing, portraiture and photography,” says Tom. Personal projects such as these are becoming increasingly important for Tom, who is currently making his first film, Arctic Surfers, that looks at the sport in Iceland.