MEMENTO MORO

In several cities in the South of France, from the marine cemetery of Sète, where the decorations looks like buoys thrown at the sea, to the cemetery of Pertuis in the Luberon where the photos of the deceased are corroded by light to leave only a pale imprint… In the province of Yucatan in Mexico, the colourful Mayan cemeteries, where miniature houses host the bones… In New Orleans, Holt Cemetery, originally for the needy, where the graves are on the ground and the tombstones are made up of everything, concrete gutters or blocks with awkward calligraphy and crosses made of plumbing pipes…

These cemeteries reflect the soul of these cities and cultures.

There, the Christ dies himself. The stone becomes dust again (goes back to dust). Bronze wears and dies, marble erodes, granite breaks, plants grow and make their place.

This series of still lifes takes a dark look at the finiteness of the human soul, approaching the memento mori, to remind us that death is everywhere in the midst of «earthly vanities».Serge Tisseron writes: «Every activity of symbolization finds its origin in the impossible mourning of the first object of love, the mother».

With this series of shots taken in cemeteries here and elsewhere, I try to overcome this trauma without repeating it. Trauma related to the death, loss, but also the repetitive Sunday visits to my grandparents’grave, inflicted by my mother during my adolescence.

FRANCE - USA - MEXICO - MOROCCO 2021-2024

MAROC

MEXIQUE

NEW ORLEANS

FRANCE