As part of the Parisian Handicap Month, the Espace Canopy is hosting an exhibition of photographs by Geoffroi Caffiery, Dis Papa – Maintenant, je n’ai plus peur dehors (Hey Daddy – Now I am no longer afraid outside).
Dis Papa, a photographic dive into the heart of intimacy. Highly aware of the disability of his son, affected by schizophrenia, Geoffroi Caffiery has chosen to explore, via 25 photographs and notes taken between 2011 and 2022, the life of an adult overwhelmed by this chronic disease, disabling and invisible.
The photographs and writings in this series are intended to bear witness to the isolation, confusion and psychic suffering that the people concerned can experience. They produce an account of time revealed and demonstrated, year after year, the progress of the person in becoming aware of the disease. Finally, they offer the person the ability to realize themselves again, both in their personal and public life.
Schizophrenia is arguably one of the least understood health conditions. Patients with this disease are still, unfortunately, very stigmatized in the eyes of a contemporary society that only perceives this disease through the most negative stereotypes.
The exhibition is an opportunity to highlight the implications of a mental illness subject to a lot of stigmatization and even of the fear of schizophrenia. However, those affected are still fully human beings. It is therefore the humanity of the patient and that of the care givers around him that this exhibition invokes, in order to modestly bring this disease out of the shadows. Around the exhibition are expected meetings about the subject, the screening of the film “A crazy project” by Jean Marc Bourillon, awarded by the International Festival of Films on Disabilities 2020.
Author-photographer, Geoffroi Caffiery lives and works in Paris. In 2018, he created with Yana O’Connell “Phototeurs de trouble”, a collective of author photographers defending a narrative approach to photography. In 2021, he co-founded “Vivantes”, an association for the fight against domestic violence, with Yael Jacquey-Dehaese.
Often rooted in his intimate biography, his photographic subjects also have a militant and political dimension. Each of his projects begins with in-depth research (literary, scientific, etc.), note-taking or the exploration of maps and/or historical archives.
Through this successful work, he wishes to inform and show the interior, geographical or historical spaces he explores.
“I wonder how photographic work creates a form of narration by assembling different sources, whether textual or iconographic. I then put these multiple references into dialogue by giving them meaning.” explains Geoffroi Caffiery.
Based either on the real or on the imaginary to constitute intimate stories, «Dis papa», social «Parlez !», environmental “Silvaticus”, memorials “«Témoins de la Grande Guerre» and poetic «La mort d’Orphée», Geoffroi Caffiery allows himself a wide range of writings which vary from documentary to pictorial.
Geoffroi Caffiery : Dis Papa – Maintenant, je n’ai plus peur dehors
from June 8 to 29, 2023
Espace Canopy
19 Rue Pajol 75018 Paris
www.espacecanopy.fr
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Geoffroi Caffiery
https://www.geoffroi.photos/home
Instagram : @geoffroic
