Fish and Ants
When the water rises the fish eat the ants; when the water falls, the ants eat the fish. In his illustration of the Cambodian proverb, this experienced photojournalist, accustomed to carrying out personal projects associated with thematic and even philosophical issues, demonstrates his love for colour. He does so with neither tricks, nor Photoshop, with patient and implausible mises en scène: with real ants and live or dried fish. This metaphor for the original struggle for life between species is adorned with exuberant colours that render even more unlikely this fight to death in which Cambodians, for whom dried fish is an essential food, recognize themselves straightaway. The overwhelming magnitude of the ants’ transportation movements, which is always striking, takes on here the appearance of a lively and fun-filled ballet, a macro report that always keeps the right distance and reveals the fascination for light of a photographer who has produced an immense and always metaphorical work around the four elements (earth, water, air, fire).
