Il y'a des jours sombres

»Il y a des jours sombres« (“There are dark days”) is the working title of a project realized in January – July 2012.?It takes place in Casamance, southern Senegal, where I spent 6 months, attending the public High School as an exchange student. My classmates welcomed me immediately and offered me a steady place in their community. Weeks of studying in class and long, hot breaks, spent on the school’s football yard passed by; and even though I wasn’t able to follow all of their conversations, I still felt as a participating part of it. The series tries to unite the constant atmosphere of friendship and intimacy in class with the foreignness and strangeness of the surrounding. I asked my friends and colleagues how they would like to be photographed- what clothes would they choose, what places, how would they pose and present themselves to the camera? After making up these small concepts, I’d visit them and we’d try to carry it out. The attempt was to get to know and find out more about these precious persons I felt so close to but who, at the same time, remained so mysterious to me.