Another favorite of the editorial team. Paul Béjannin is presenting the exhibition Rapa Iti, the Island That Dreamed of Another World at the Delegation of French Polynesia in Paris until September 18.
In the south of French Polynesia, 1,200 kilometers from Tahiti, there is an island where time seems to stand still: Rapa Iti, the southernmost inhabited island of the French Republic. Accessible only by boat every six to eight weeks, it lives to the rhythm of the solidarity of its 500 inhabitants, combining traditions, isolation, and a unique relationship with nature.
Rapa Iti is a world that is both closed and open. Here, no one owns the land; it belongs to everyone. Food comes from the fields, from free-ranging herds, from hunting and fishing, shared equitably thanks to the rahui, an ancestral custom reinstated thirty years ago to protect the bays. This system, which prohibits fishing in certain areas, has helped preserve an ecological sanctuary unique in Polynesia.
In this setting, social life is intense. Sundays bring the community together around mass, children’s games, or collective banquets where everyone contributes. Celebrations sometimes last several days, abolishing barriers between generations. Even the arrival of the cargo ship, a rare link with the outside world, becomes an event experienced by the entire island.
This reportage, conducted in immersion over several weeks, bears witness to this singular reality: one police officer for the entire island, families attached to their taro fields, children forced to leave Rapa as teenagers to continue their studies, fishermen renowned for their freediving, nurses taking on medical care alone. So many everyday scenes that reveal the resilience and creativity of this microsociety.
These images are less about capturing an island outside of this world than about questioning our own lifestyles. In a globalized world, Rapa Iti reminds us that there are still places where mutual aid takes precedence over individualism, where ecology is taken for granted, and where the community builds a different relationship with time and modernity.
Paul Béjannin is a freelance photojournalist based in France.
Paul Béjannin : Rapa Iti, l’île qui rêvait d’un autre monde
Jusqu’au 18 septembre 2025
Délégation de la Polynésie française
28 boulevard Saint-Germain, 75005 Paris
www.paulbejannin.com
