Reading this excellent post about how to write about photographs while struggling to do it with the stories section on this website has been a fruitful and painful process. Way more painful that it was fruitful to be honest.

Why ?

Part of it has to do with what is said in the post mentioned above : better not write about a serie of images after it’s done. Writing sticks more to the photos as it develops over time, as the images are created.
It makes sense.
We had done some of this work over the last three years. What we had written was way too descriptive or, on the other hand, the words seemed disconnected from the images.

So the question was, what value can a text bring to this visual whole that we tried to arrange through emotional, thematic, graphic links ? What does the word bring that is there, invisible but necessary?

Necessary because to plunge into a series of photographs that pretend to stand as a whole is a bit like being invited in the middle of a conversation.

Where to enter ?

You try to open a world with a determined number of images. You shouldn’t impose anything but maybe give a few keys.

A tightrope walker exercise.

This word/image body to body is the place of unresolved emotions, self-censorship, doubt. Things that need to be addressed to release them into the world. This is why it’s hard.

This is why the path to clarity is muddy.