Friend,
Friend,Open call
shared online
and on the streets of Paris
March 2026
The creation of this series feels less like making it
and more like meeting it,
I`ve had to let go from wanting to control the images
and let them speak to and through me.
I meet
Maud and
Saul
Saul
outside Saul`s appartment , we go upstairs, they make each others hair, sit on the floor, they update each other on the latest happenings, in French, the sun starts to set and they lay down on Saul`s bed, they playfight and cuddle, their friendship is soft and physical.
I am a stranger to their dynamic, their language and the room.
Later we go out on the streets, I ask about their shared memories, but I mostly interact with them through my camera. I take notes, observe, capture, I don`t leave as a stranger.
I meet
Henriette and
Romane
Romane
in a park, they want to tell me about their friendship before I unpack my camera, we sit in the grass and I listen to them remember the timeline of their bond. As we feel ready, I capture them laying in the sun, talking, dancing and rehearsing for a theatre production they will both play in. We decide to stage some pictures and my position changes, I no longer document their day, I´m an active part of it.
There is a new experience added to their friendship and it includes me. For a second I feel as if I failed my attempt to document a relationship by stepping in and being a loud part of the situation. As we keep going, I realise that I did the right thing, their friendship consists of moments they are being directed through, by making them pose, I capture them in a condition that lies within the nature of who
they are together.
`Friend, Friend, Stranger´first shown at ´Letters to a friend´ groupexhibition organised by Annika Toyah Bode and Pien Witte, Summer 2026 Arnhem, The Netherlands.
I left Paris with hundreds of photos on my card, I didn`t want to touch them yet, I wanted to continue shooting and let more friends with all sorts of different experiences be a part of this narration.
But I found that there was a depth within the images that didn´t ask for more.
I looked through my files in search of the strongest motives.
As I was printing what I thought was the full series, something seemed wrong.
I realised that this time, it was not my job to decide on what photographs were deserving of a big print.
I printed everything. The full shootings, it felt radical and right.
These friendships were portrayed through the whole time we have spend together, starting as strangers.
During this documentation, a new experience was added to the relationships.
Sometimes things change through looking at them.
All images were printed in the same size and placed chronologically,
visitors were encouraged to walk throgh them.
But I found that there was a depth within the images that didn´t ask for more.
I looked through my files in search of the strongest motives.
As I was printing what I thought was the full series, something seemed wrong.
I realised that this time, it was not my job to decide on what photographs were deserving of a big print.
I printed everything. The full shootings, it felt radical and right.
These friendships were portrayed through the whole time we have spend together, starting as strangers.
During this documentation, a new experience was added to the relationships.
Sometimes things change through looking at them.
All images were printed in the same size and placed chronologically,
visitors were encouraged to walk throgh them.