Little Women
Watching a child is like looking at a well of possibilities; one often wonders: what kind of adult will he or she become?
In 2011, I was an artist-in-residence at the Municipal School of Visual Arts in Vigneux-sur-Seine; that year was, for me, a true immersion in childhood and adolescence. It brought back memories of that age: how beautiful and how complicated growing up was. That’s where I met four girls, aged between 10 and 13. I asked them to pose for me for three years, so that I could watch them leave the world of childhood.
I did not want to create a project about adolescence itself, but about its arrival: I wanted to look at the child and glimpse the adolescent emerging from her. To do so, I followed them gently, allowing them freedom in front of the camera.
One of the girls, the oldest, stopped coming to the photo sessions halfway through. As if turning fifteen had already set her apart from the others.
At the end of the projects the girls, still with one foot in childhood, had become something new: “Little Women”.
