"The images 'Sevara, Namangan, UZ, 2002'; 'Famille de Silkhon, Kiziljar, KZ, 2003'; 'Photos de famille, Shanshan, CN, 2003' are a sort of meta-photographs/meta-images. It somehow feels like if in your account we could experience further personal stories of your subjects’ families. The series collects all those signs and creates a web rich of possibilities. We can imagine their private stories, or we can try to recompose the puzzle of their lives. How intense has been your impact with their lives? How important is it to be close to them to make this series possible?
Working on mutations leads to work on memory. The fact of taking a picture engraves the moment into the flow of time, but this very moment can show signs of the past, a 'mise en abîme', mirrors reflecting mirrors. It tells stories into other stories precisely like matriochkas : Madina is showing a picture of her mother who is just in the other room, Silkhon the fisherman is drawing his boat from the vanishing Aral sea…Mixed up times…The past nested into the Present.
For this it is important to me to be close to people I photograph. My desire of developing a subject is mainly based on meeting people, so whenever it is possible I live with them for a some time, I share their lives, their activities, their emotions. That is also the only way for me to feel allowed to take their pictures."
- Claudine Doury, Loulan Beauty.
(Read the rest of the interview here.)
