The being front

"The Being Front" On the eve of the presidential elections in France. The likelihood of seeing the National Front and Marine Le Pen in the second round was re-emerging. This probability is even less and less disturbing for a growing number of French people. The vote FN is banalized. The rise of Donald Trump and populism around the world galvanized leaders and activists. In this context Marine Le Pen and the National Front are trying to catch up with their image deficit. The summer universities of the National Front in September 2016 were the kick-off of this attempt to give the National Front the image of a party like the others and to Marine Le Pen that of a presidential candidate. The summer school of the National Front is now called "Les estivales de Marine Le Pen" and the emblematic codes of the front like the red white blue flame have disappeared leaving room for a nice, tender, reassembling and reassuring, purple… However, the National Front and its activists, even though they are more numerous and more diverse (young people, people of immigrant background, diverse social classes, gays ...), remain basically the same. The activist no longer has caricature, but now resembles our neighbor, our trader, the mother of a childhood friend, a friend of high school ... The common point, however, is that they are people overwhelmed by society. People who are afraid of the future. People Lost, frightened, disappointed. Folded back on themselves in a frantic egoism. Become embittered and hateful. People who want to protect what they have. Feeling like an island that must be secured and protected at all costs in the surrounding human drama. On the eve of the presidential campaign, it seemed important to make a photograph of these activists. To give the French a mirror on what is happening in us, in us. And what could become of tomorrow's France. For it is indeed on this slope that the French people sadly slip a little more at each election. In a neutral universe, photos not posed. In a crossroads of the Estivales where precisely the militants seek their way and forget themselves. Absorbed by their thoughts or their discussions to become themselves again and let them see what they are. The series reveals their true nature and their faults. A series that shows Frenchmen, our fellow citizens. A series that does not demonize or stigmatize but reveals a certain truth about who they are and what they feel.