This post is also available in: French

After “La Mer comme Quotidien”, the first opus of the “Gens de Mada” collection on seafarers published in 2018, Pierrot Men takes us to the world of children of Madagascar. “Zazakely – Children of Madagascar” are children at school, children at work, children playing. An uncompromising portrait of this youth, which is the future of Madagascar, a hopeful portrait carried by the wonderful texts of Johary Ravaloson and Jacques Doillon.

Born in Madagascar of a Chinese father and a Madagascan mother, Pierrot Men oriented himself toward painting. From this practice that he exercised for 17 years he keeps a keen sense of composition and framing. Then came the switch to photography when he created his photo studio in 1974. From that moment, Pierrot Men fixed on his film those he loves most: the Malagasy and especially children. He captures them in their familiar everyday life, moments of surprise torn from an indecisive and sometimes difficult reality. He leaves the field free to snapshot to capture the vivacity and joy of his subjects.

“With Pierrot Men, things are moving everywhere. More dynamic is complicated, immediately this momentum, I find it in a good and beautiful part of his work. It’s composed and it flies, it jumps, it climbs, it dives, it swirls. Movement. “That,” children. Which are better than “that”. – Jacques Doillon