His name: Jean-Luc Leroy-Rojek
He was the revelation of this year’s Phot’Aubrac with his Voisins, Voisines exhibitions.
This crazy photographer is in his professional life repairman for Orange, the telephone operator.
He gave us this lovely text:
Since childhood, photography has fascinated me. Heavy family albums are certainly the reason. The words stuck in silence, my roots remained pictures.
As soon as I could, I started competing in photo contests with my first photographic equipment. Encouraged by rewards in the form of more efficient cameras, the exhibitions began.
Thus a contest gave me a Nikon D 800,and awarded me the title of winner of the Author Grand Prix 2012 of France Photographic Federation with a series of 30 pictures.
“Neighbors, Neighbors …” was inspired by my professional life. I fix private telephone line at home, which allows me to penetrate these incomparable bubbles of life that remains the daily lives of many people.
Wanting to thank me for the success of the repair, they want to give me something in return. I then tell them of my passion, and ask them if they would agree to pose for me, without changing anything of this page of their life which was thus offered to me. They accept with good heart. It seemed to me essential for them to hold in their hands their own phone. Why ? It often remains the only link with the others, the family, the need for help, life. Like an umbilical cord …
Human fantasy, little every day things, fragile memories, acquired knowledge, dreams forever lost, the spontaneous generosity of all these people, their intimacy unveiled, shared: all this seems extraordinary.
The daily happiness of discovering the other, in this one and only real freedom we have left: « To Live at home as we wish! “.
Everyone has a life, and a story. Few know how to hear it, understand it … They do not know what they are missing! There is so much to learn, to discover … Often a detail in the room points to their dreams and stimulates the conversation with animation. The anecdote then arrives, the explanation too, the experience, the time does not count anymore …
There, it is always surprising and reassuring for me to verify that this simple word “Humanity” always means something.
I have been asked from the beginning for a support that would bring together all these lives … Yes, a book composed of kitchen tales, around oilcloths covered tables and comtoises, from the chimney corner but also with respect, acceptance of differences … But especially of our roots. I drag and I dread this moment that will freeze a little part of myself … The layout is watching me from the corner of my memory.
In the meantime, I live photo, I think photo, I dream photo …
Jean-Luc Leroy-Rojek
