As It Was 2020
On 12 March 2020, I returned to Germany after working on a reportage in Algeria. Two days later, our world seemed to have collapsed, in global quarantine because of the Coronavirus. In most countries, the choice was made for a total cessation of activity and strict lock down of the entire population.
In Germany, the restrictions were less drastic and we still had the freedom to walk around within the regulations. Faced with this general trauma, I felt that we had to stop watching the news and instead try to work and testify. I started to photograph Frankfurt, hoping to gain access, in vain, to the hospitals and clinics, where everything was going on, and to report on the situation there. So, I took a lot of pictures in the street where I discovered frightening and painful situations, but also funny, beautiful and emotional ones.
This idea and my wanderings gave birth to a little book with words, photos and paintings, in order to complete what I couldn’t capture through photography, especially my emotions and feelings. The notion of reality has changed during this period, I couldn’t tell what was real and what I imagined through the news and my own work. My diary became a polymorphic object, articulated between texts and images, which allowed me to manage the situation at my own scale.
Ferhat Bouda
—
Hôtel Paul Delaroche
58 rue Saint Lazare, 75009 Paris
+33 1 53 01 85 85
—
