Photographs vs Photographer

For as long as I can remember, I always loved stillshots. Some are cinema buffs. For my part, it is the magic these still imagesthat are provoking dreams. Contemplating an image is diving in the heart of amystery that one’s soul will shape in their own way, to capture a world and tooffer it to one’s own imaginary.

It is not the man holding the camera who is important,but the photographer’s vision. If his images do not speak to you, surely thephotographer is uninteresting. Images should tell a story, give birth todesires, provoke laughter and pain, in one word, provoke a reaction.

My first camera was a plastic one, no light meter, orfocus. No interchangeable lens, nothing. Only a trigger to carry with one’sself the vision of an instant.

Some photographers aspire to be witnesses of theirtime want to testify of what they have seen, “let the world know”. This hasnever been my approach. Even when at the heart of the war, I have seen thedestructive madness of man, these were not images that were of interest to me.I only wanted my thoughts to be projected on to the film. I wanted to open toanyone who would look at the image, a book with no ending in which one wouldknow how to reflect, understand a situation. My images did not feature blood.

In Afghanistan, I have seen children dying at my feetwhile staring at me. I did not take pictures. I have seen men and women inshreds. I did not take pictures. The film was my heart where all their looks areetched forever. My pictures showcase life.