The story begins when I travel to Tangier for the first time with my daughter, who wants me to introduce her to street photography. Our pretext is to discover my father’s birthplace—her grandfather’s—which he left at fifteen and never returned to. We then take the road south to Sidi Ifni, driven by the desire to travel off the beaten path and meet the locals. Upon our return, we want to share our experience and show our images. Through new encounters, the narrative of this exhibition takes shape.
Letters exchanged with Rita to seal our artistic collaboration within our father-daughter relationship.
Rita. At the beginning of summer, I gave you the slightly battered camera I carry everywhere. During our trip, you came to me one morning to propose this project—an exhibition, a zine, an opening with our respective friends, a generational mix. Passing on what drives me is the essence of my role as a father, and this continues with Smala. From the moment you arrived in my life, you’ve pushed me to surpass myself. As you’ve grown, you perceive what’s at stake in the inexhaustible attempt to capture the world around us with a camera. For two years now, you’ve been regularly nipping at my heels about this. You know these images piling up on my hard drives, and you rage to see them silenced this way. Your energy illuminates me. A pact of trust now binds us to continue this adventure and keep sharing.
Dad, I wonder how to express the emotions that have marked our adventure. The bond we share rests on a silent understanding, in our gaze and in our gestures. Between us, a Sony that fits in a pocket—your camera that’s been with you everywhere for 10 years, which you entrusted to me on July 24, 2023, in the airport while we were waiting for the flight to Casa. You bought yourself the same one because you were tired of not being able to see anything on the scratched little screen. I was going to have to shoot blind, but I was thrilled at the idea of you teaching me how to use it. At first, I struggled with the technical terms—shutter, shutter speed… I always took three identical photos instead of focusing, but I don’t get discouraged because you understand what I see.
SMALA SOUND
SCENOGRAPHY
The generational mix mentioned by Rita is the common thread running through the project and reveals different approaches to image creation. Our own visual culture provides the opportunity to mix printing media and formats.
Soundscape
Sofiane Saidi composed 40 minutes of ambient sounds collected in Algeria, to which he added piano and vocals. For the opening, he gave an a cappella concert, accompanied by the Ceccaldi brothers, violonist and cellist
Fanzine
This is the initial impulse, for the pleasure of making an object, of printing and giving it away. Divided into two parts, with my series and then Rita’s, the pages are different sizes. In the middle, the smaller ones contain the letter we wrote to each other, and in the margins of the images, travel notes…
SCENOGRAPHY
The generational mix mentioned by Rita is the common thread running through the project and reveals different approaches to image creation. Our own visual culture provides the opportunity to mix printing media and formats.
OPENING
SOUNDSCAPE
Sofiane Saidi composed 40 minutes of ambient sounds collected in Algeria, to which he added piano and vocals. For the opening, he gave an a cappella concert, accompanied by the Ceccaldi brothers, violonist and cellist.
FANZINE
This is the initial impulse, for the pleasure of making an object, of printing and giving it away. Divided into two parts, with my series and then Rita’s, the pages are different sizes. In the middle, the smaller ones contain the letter we wrote to each other, and in the margins of the images, travel notes…
Arles 2024
Les rencontres de la photographieFlyposting
We invite ourselves to Arles where, at night, we open windows onto Morocco within the city walls.
Creating our own rules and accepting those of others, from one night to the next, this ritual prolongs the adventure. Torn off, recovered, covered up, peeled off, ripped or intact, surrounded by others, posted, reposted, tagged…
