An Island between us
I have lived in French Polynesia for several years, and this is an ongoing project that continues to evolve alongside my experience of living here. Over time, I have become increasingly aware of a form of silence that runs through relationships and everyday life. A silence that can be found in looks, gestures, restraint, in what is felt but sometimes remains difficult to express. This feeling resonated with the research of anthropologist Daniel Monconduit on the different forms of silence in Polynesia, and their relationship to the world, the past, and transmission. He also explores the profound transformations brought about by missionary and colonial influence, and later by the upheavals of modernity. These reflections gave words to something I had been sensing for a long time: reserve, what is passed on without being spoken, what remains after cultural transformations, and what history may leave within relationships. This question is also intertwined with that of insularity. To live on an island is to inhabit a territory that is both infinitely open and profoundly enclosed. The ocean connects, but it also separates. One can be surrounded by others and still feel a sense of distance. One can be close to someone without truly reaching them. Through portraits, landscapes, and fragments of everyday life, I photograph these spaces between people: presences and absences, those who leave and those who remain, looks that do not reveal everything.
