Tahiti Notes
This photographic series focuses on the adaptation of Polynesian students to mainland France. It seeks to document the projects of the University of French Polynesia, the arrival in France of some students—in a sporting context—to assess their ambitions, and to undertake an astonishing collective adventure. While the change of time zone is still disrupting our bodies and our bearings, and as we must find our place in a new environment and a context of athletic performance, I wanted to convey the moments of uncertainty, the dilation of time, and the cracks in reality. Wishing to transcribe the wandering experience of discovering France in a sometimes murky setting, the camera acts as a witness, seeking to connect physical and imaginary spaces. Thus, this series seeks to convey the experience of the territory as a close-up immersion, like a notebook.
I wanted it to question the notion of Polynesian students’ perception of mainland France. For all the academics featured in these images, this represents an important cultural and intimately personal milestone, that of discovering a culture to which Polynesian tradition is politically and historically linked.
Exploring a continental territory with its myriad possibilities can be intimidating when you come from a motu in the Society Islands archipelago. I wanted to bear witness, through photography, to these upheavals and this unique journey. My goal is to be able to trace this emotional and physiological journey. The aesthetic of this series tends toward the dreamlike, illustrating the disruption of the observed environment, seeking to discern the colors of a setting that is the polar opposite of island life.
