(CNN) It hosts one of the most glamorous days on the sporting calendar, but Paris' Longchamp racecourse has long been in need of a makeover.
Next month, following the conclusion of Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, work will start on a project that owner France Galop hopes will transform the appearance of the historic horse racing venue and secure its financial future.
Architect Dominique Perrault's futuristic new stand design incorporates "transparent shelves," replacing two rather tired main grandstands.
Erected in the early 1960s, the stands have always felt slightly at odds with their surroundings in the Bois de Boulogne, an 850-hectare public park on the French capital's western fringes.
The new building and overall redesign is costing €130 million ($145 million) and will feel less alien in the setting, Perrault insists.
Outback town turns into party capital
Sunrise over Birdsville and a jockey takes an early morning ride in preparation for the town's big race. The
Birdsville Races were first held in 1882, run between a handful of work horses and watched by a few locals. Today, the event attracts thousands of spectators for the two-day event.
Horse owners and trainers from across Australia make the annual pilgrimage to the event described as the Melbourne Cup of the Outback.
Located close to border of Queenland and South Australia, Birdsville is 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) due west of Brisbane. Chapman's car journey from Melbourne lasted a marathon 26 hours.
"Driving into the town after being on the track for a day is surreal," she explains. "You wonder where all these people came from after only seeing relatively few cars on the track."
Black Caviar trainer, Peter Moody was in attendance this year, bringing four horses to race -- but none in the Birdsville Cup. "Birdsville Races is one of the most iconic race meetings of the world, not just Australia," he said.
The local airstrip, which lies largely empty for most of the year becomes an arrivals lounge and impromtu campsite rolled into one.
"People fly by light plane," explains Jo McKinnon from the Birdsville Race Club. "The airstrip is right alongside the pub. Some people even camp under the wings of their plane or sleep in them."
The Birdsville Hotel, which is also the only pub in the town, is the place where locals and racegoers flock to during the weekend. The drinking hole is a popular stop-off point for backpackers from all over the world and probably the most famous Outback bar in Australia. Around 80,000 cans of beer are consumed during the weekend.
Birdville Bakery owned by Dusty Miller (pictured) and their savory pies are also a must for all visitors. Many opt for curried beef, but some tourists are brave enough to sample the famous curried camel pie. Miller estimates he sells around 10,000 pies during race weekend.
"No trip to Birdsville is complete without a visit to the Birdsville Pub and Fred Brophy's Boxing Tent, the last of its kind in the world, where visitors have the chance to challenge Fred's Boxing Troupe," Chapman says.
Fights are open to all with Brophy offering a prize purse of AUS$30 a minute if a challenger defeats one of his fighters.
Ladies pose for a photo beside the Birdsville racetrack -- a welcome splash of color amid a sea of scrub and dirt.
It's not something you'd see at Royal Enclosure at Ascot but Birdsville is a place where Elvis impersonators and men in black trilby hats can really let their hair down.
A jockey poses with a young fan before a race.
Horses and jockeys parade for the punters ahead of Saturday's big race.
And they're off! The 12-strong field of the 2015 Birdsville Cup get underway in the one-mile race around the dirt track -- the highlight of the 13-race meet which boasts a AUS$200,000 ($140,000) prize pot.
Chapman fixed one of her camera's to the starting gate to capture this image using a fish-eye lens.
Chapman took to the skies in a helicopter to capture this shot of the races. Every year, the event raises money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, donating AUS$40,000 ($28,000) in 2014.
Iron Meteorite ridden by James Geppert (left) wins the 2015 Birdsville Cup.
Iron Meteorite trainer Jay Morris proudly shows off the Birdsville Cup following the award ceremony.
Sharon Chapman will be presenting an exhibition of her Birdsville photos alongside equine artist, Janet Hammill in 2016. You can view more of her work at
http://www.fasttrackphotography.com.au and follow her on Twitter
@FastTrackPhotog
"Everybody is happy with the project because it has got more green space," Perrault told CNN.
"For me, I like the relationship between the architecture and nature -- it's very smooth, very delicate and poetic also."
A series of concrete plateaus will house restaurants, bars and terraced hospitality spaces with panoramic views.
"You can see in all directions," the Paris-based architect explains.
"The trackside looks out to the east onto Paris, the Eiffel Tower. To the west, you have the Seine river and a park. The idea is you walk on a different plateau and the view on either side is uninterrupted like a fluid promenade."
Service buildings currently scattered around the site will also be demolished and rebuilt as pavilions, while the racecourse's historic structures will be renovated.
A horse race like no other
The Palio di Siena is a horse race like no other on earth. The mad, sometimes brutal dash around the Tuscan city's Piazza del Campo has been contested since medieval times.
The biannual event, which takes place on July 2 and August 16, sees Siena's neighboring districts battle it out for supremacy and bragging rights. The race lasts barely 90 seconds with 10 jockeys riding bareback three times around the piazza in front of a baying crowd. Unlike traditional racing, horses that unseat their riders can still win.
As Siena gears up for this year's second race on Sunday, British photographer
Greg Funnell explains what it's like to be in the thick of the action at this extraordinary spectacle.
"Covering any large sporting and cultural event like the Palio is an exciting opportunity," Funnell told CNN.
"The spectacle provides ample opportunities to grab a wide range of images conveying the event and surrounding atmosphere. Races have a defined timeline which means building a narrative is quite straightforward but often involves shooting ahead of the race as well as after."
"The Palio is a hugely colorful event but I've always enjoyed shooting in black and white -- for me the Palio feels quite timeless, and the absence of color helped maintain that feeling," says Funnell, who attended the event in 2014.
"The race itself takes places after hours of parades and build up ... the importance of the race to the cultural identity of the Sienese cannot be taken lightly and is something very difficult for an outsider to fully grasp."
"I find there is much to be gained from turning your camera on the spectators and the crowd, often the energy and suspense is reflected in their faces -- the tension becomes palpable," the London-based photographer said.
"Moments before the race the 60,000-strong crowd is almost deadly silent. When the canon fires and the rope drops there is intense excitement but also relief -- it feels like a huge collective release."
"The race itself is over in 90 seconds -- the local authorities allow a limited number of accredited photographs onto certain parts of the track -- so there's nothing separating you from the horses."
"You really only have two attempts to shoot the horses as by the third lap the crowd are starting to get up from their seats and invade the track."
"A few of my shots towards the end of the race were blurry because I was shooting and moving at the same time. I debated pulling the image from the story but I think it goes a little way to describing the sense of heightened drama."
"Getting shots after the race was chaos -- all around people are running and screaming, embracing, cheering, crying; and it takes a lot of mental energy just to stay focused and work on getting shots as there is so much to take in -- it's total pandemonium."
"My favorite jobs are when I'm sent to cover something of cultural or historical significance. I love a story with sense of drama and romance ..."
Greg Funnell is represented by
Stem Agency and his photo assignments can be followed on
Twitter and
Instagram: @gregfunnell
All images in this gallery are © Greg Funnell
Much of Perrault's previous work has focused on harmonizing the relationship between buildings and the natural environment.
His design for the French National Library, completed in 1989, incorporates a sunken courtyard populated with trees.
Perrault's EWHA Women's University campus in Seoul, South Korea, also blurs the lines between city spaces and natural landscapes, creating a single area that accommodates both study and recreation.
"The building disappears -- it has some roots and these roots connect the building with nature," he says.
France Galop, French horse racing's governing body, is banking on the new pared-down facility to attract more racegoers year-round rather than just during "Arc" weekend, when 50,000 punters pack the stands for the world's richest turf event.
Building work means that next year's race will be run at Chantilly, 50 kilometers north of Paris, before returning to the newly configured Longchamp in 2017.
Gallic flair
The EWHA Womens University in Seoul, South Korea. One of Dominique Perrault's key aims as an architect is to bring harmony to the relationship between buildings and their surroundings.
Completed in 2008, the university campus attempts to fuse the urban and natural space together.
The roof of the campus doubles as a place of recreation for students.
Perrault's French National Library in Paris was completed in 1995. The building is made up of four 79-meter high towers that were designed to look like open books.
At the center of the complex lies a sunken courtyard populated with trees. "The building blends with nature," Perrault notes. "In Paris, one has the impression that the garden of the Library is at the level of the River Seine, but in fact, it is 10 meters lower.
"One almost feels that the garden was there before the building and that the Library somehow protects it," Perrault says.
"This relationship with the earth is complex, and it contradicts the usual Modernist tenets."
Berlin's Velodrome and Olympic Swimming Pool continue Perrault's sunken motif, with both structures (the swimming pool is in the background) "immersed" and flanked by an apple orchard.
Construction on the Berlin project took seven years and was completed in 1999. Perrault also designed the Olympic Tennis Center in Madrid which was built as part of the Spanish capital's 2016 Olympic bid.
Perrault also designed Madrid's Arganzuela Footbridge.
The metallic cone shape encases the structure with a walkway made from wooden slats.
The thin metal gauze allows sunlight to filter through during the day...
...and reflect electric lights at night.