WORK
PORTRAITS & more
ABOUT
SHATTAT2025 -
«Shattat» (شتت) is a hand gesture from Sudan, commonly used as a sign of strength, joy and belonging, and often shared on social media as a representation of joyful collective life.
This project takes place in a shelter in Steenvoorde, a village in northern France where I grew up. There, the association Terre d’Errance houses up to twelve Sudanese men who are on their migration route to England.
Through a collaborative approach, the men chose how they wished to appear in their portraits. By telling their own stories and taking back control of their representation, they reveal a view of exile marked by pride and dignity. Shattat thus questions the norms of representing others in documentary photography, and the unspoken conventions they impose. Where we are used to seeing exile depicted without smiles or gestures of belonging, these traits are here chosen by the men themselves, fully embraced, and become part of the story.
Combining staged portraits and still lifes of the house, Shattat overall depicts the everyday life in limbo, in the suspended time between two attempts to cross the English Channel.
Copyright © All rights reserved