This post is also available in: French

France – 2015 / 2016

In the home of very old people who are sometimes condemned to have to live alone and who are kept in their home as long as possible to avoid their placement in a retirement home, we enter into a place that tells us the story of a valuable life: the objects, the wallpaper, the kitchen and the utensils sometimes useful, sometimes not, properly put away or abandoned, books, pictures, lampshades, clocks….all those things talk about them. And then we go deeper into this universe marked by daily visits: the postman, the doctor who comes on a regular basis, nurses, friends, family and … the radio, the tv programs and as they often say:

We are lucky to have the TV, I don’t watch it, I can see it but I can especially hear it, it’s as if I’m not alone…
My pictures show moments in the lives of this old people, as seen during two years of daily visits. All those I have met talked to me about their feelings, their story, and their memories from their childhood, their youth, and their laughter and also about their regrets and tears. I become a witness, thanks to their consent and trust, through my pictures and their anecdotes.
The titles and anecdotes of the pictures are transcript exactly as told.For them, we, their domestic helps, are their ‘sunshine’, and for me Jeanne, Antoine, Ginette, Josette, Raymond, Jackie… You will always be my ‘evanescent/ fading suns’.

Liberties of handicapped or dependent old age people

This charter was created in 1987 by the national foundation of gerontology and this year it is the 30th anniversary.An anniversary to celebrate or a duty of memory to transmit?
This charter starts with the following preamble:Old age is a stage of our life where each one of us pursues his/her fulfilmentAnd ends with:When it will be admitted and acquired that handicapped or dependent old age people are respected that their dignity, liberty, rights and choices are recognized, this charter will be printed in his/her mind.