Parallel Society

A long time ago looking for a photo show in Paris, I stumbled on «La maison de la Photographie» They were presenting Larry Clark’s work, Tulsa. Back then I had never heard about this man nor his work. Big, bold b&w prints…  Pretty intense topic as well (see here) When I got back home I managed to get my hand on a copy of the book. Since that moment these images always stayed in my head. I often wished I returned to a more documentary aspect of photography. I thought that I needed to be travelling for that. Wrong.

About a year ago, a friend of mine started working with drug users downtown Montreal. Larry Clark’s work immediately came to my mind. I saw an opportunity to get back to my photographic roots. I asked him if I could hang out with him to start a photo project. It was a fairly long discussion before we found an angle that could be respectful for the photographed people as well as his own work. So last summer I finally started hanging downtown meeting these new people, chatting with them talking  about my photo project and eventually taking pictures in various moments or their existences. These encounters changed the way I see these people when they cross my path in the city. It’s very interresting to get to know some of them, their stories, share their joys and sadness…

More to come