Tempting

20 October 2018: Monastery of the Temptation, Jericho, Palestine.

Inspiration

One week in Perpignan, for the traditional photo festival Visa pour l'Image, admiring the inspiring work of great photojournalists and improving my understanding of the world, in its best and worst aspects.Back at the office, the portraits of two of my colleagues stand next to a condolence book. Another source of motivation. We better have to be outstanding now...

05 September 2015: Visa pour l'Image, Perpignan, France.

Intifada

The room smells like books (Wonderland, At War) while Chet Faker is competing surprisingly well against an inspired Bonobo (listen to the last minutes). I feel my heart beat slowing down.My two phones have been switched off, new symbol of a laissez aller, encouraging my brain to let go and to enjoy the fresh breeze. I wish I could be dancing in a cold fjord.After 3 months and 7 days, my plane-free detox stopped, with a return to Europe announcing the beginning of a new mission. I am, finally, going to Yemen.And the music get louder…

Jet Lagged

24 February 2015: Street food vendor, Mandalay, Myanmar/Burma

Introspection

Time flies. Two years ago, I was in Yaounde, Cameroon, wondering if my new job really was for me. Today, I am writing my end of mission report in Afghanistan, waiting for a good break, already knowing another challenge is coming.

14 January 2013: Sarah, waiting in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Up in the Air

My good old friend Bonobo is flirting with my ears with his new album live. And time and gravity don't exist anymore...

Stress management lesson One

17 October 2014: Talia, Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan

Silent WE

Quiet weekend, reading about new places, wondering if I could live and work there. Maybe this year, I won't need googlemap to know where my new mission is ...

04 October 2014: Azar. Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

The Cost of Life

Up to 500 people died last Friday due to a landslide in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan. After two days looking for survivors, the local Governor declared "We cannot continue the search and rescue operation anymore, as the houses are under meters of mud. We will offer prayers for the victims and make the area a mass grave".

A few thousands of kilometers from there, hundreds of people have been working since March 8th, to find, in the middle of the ocean, missing flight MH370 and its 227 passengers and 12 crew members. It represents, according to the estimations, more than USD100 million spent for the operation (and therefore more than ICRC's budget  in Afghanistan for 2013).

How much are we ready to invest to find the mortal remains of relatives? Is there a limit to everything, a maximum cost to truth? I wonder...

02 May 2013: Lucia, Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan

Balade Parisienne

A few days in Paris and I am suddenly craving for street photography. Not sure my new mission in Afghanistan will give me that opportunity... but I hope to have the chance to shoot a few nice portraits.

21 November 2013: Café "Le Centenaire", Paris, France

Meanwhile, I'm getting rid of any form of gravity in my mind, listening to the new compilation by Bonobo and Late Night Tales.

21 November 2013: Exhibition "Un moment si doux" by Raymond Depardon, at the Grand Palais, Paris, France

Geek Time

I was not a big Apple fan, far from it, but became one when I got my first iPod (nano 1G) and later started using a MacBook in 2007. Fantastic ergonomic coupled with a nice design and very intuitive to use (even for a big Windows XP user and geek).

I just purchased my 4th Mac (a MacBook Air 11") and like the previous one I owned, I have it most of the time with me. Amazing autonomy (up to 9 hours), great performances (faster that the previous one, with which I used to process all my pictures and even designed two books) and of course, incredibly thin and light.

Nothing new, for people knowing me, but what is, though, is that I have to recognize a certain lassitude lately. My MacBook Air is certainly still the best machine on the market in its category and Mountain Lion is amazingly stable and powerful. But I start seeing a clear lack of creativity. While google just provided a brand new easy-to-use gmail interface (sorting your mails for you), Apple still struggles to use the gmail flags properly and hasn't brought anything new in his Mail.app lately. And the upcoming new Mac OS shouldn't change anything neither.

The iPhone, that revolutionized the (smart)phone industry remains very expensive and starts lacking some serious innovation. iTunes still has bugs with iTunes Match (unloaded covers, weird albums grouping, …) and I fail to see a real interest for a fingerprints reader (which, by the way, already equipped my IBM laptop 7 years ago). Androide's phones certainly have tons of useless and unfinalized applications, but at least, Google is making some effort to bring new technologies.

I am ready to pay more, to get an outstanding customer service (Apple store and warranty), a great design (Macbook Air) or a fantastic ergonomic (Moutain Lion / Apple touchpad) but I am not ready to pay a fortune just to get a bigger phone and I worry when I realize that nothing, in the new Mac OS really interests me. Where are the new Time Machine, multi-fingers support or other spotlight functionalities? I understand that it takes time to design new products and to invent something really inovative. But in the past months/two years, Apple hasn't surprised me at all. Maybe NOW is the right time...

11 September 2013: Agaichatou, Naivasha, Kenya

Silence

The sky is filled with stars and the night absolutely silent. Just a small, soft music, in my head.

Lots of meetings and discussions with interlocutors. Some sms. And a memory card in my pocket, containing some first official pictures to be processed.

The music gets lounder. 48 heartbeats/min.

Another night in Africa.

11 February 2013: Thanks to Alyona, for posing despite the bad light and lack of chair. Bangui, Central African Republic

Light

I have been working on a new project. I have never done that before, it's quite challenging (especially when you are a bit control freak) but it is also definitely very exciting. More soon...21 March 2011: To be continued ...

Trekking

12 November 2010: A Vietnamese woman prepares incense sticks near Sapa village, North Vietnam. [Click on the picture to enlarge it].

Henna 2: The Return

I received a few emails requesting for more pictures of the henna painter. And as I have been stuck all week with admin stuff... I don't have any new pictures to show. So:23 September 2010: Fatima Bahit (also know as Tata) is one of the most famous henna specialists in El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan. Self-taught and with more than 15 years experience, she frequently goes to Khartoum or even to Dubai to provide her services to women for weddings or Eid celebrations. [Click on the picture to enlarge it]Just a quick reminder. Wordpress compresses my pictures to create a thumbnail, leading sometimes to an impression of blurred picture. If you want to see the original version, just click on the picture.

Henna and Music

23 September 2010: Fatima Bahit (also know as Tata) is one of the most famous henna specialists in El Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan. Self-taught and with more than 15 years experience, she frequently goes to Khartoum or even to Dubai to provide her services to women for weddings or Eid celebrations. [Click on the picture to enlarge it]And by the way, being a big fan of music and traveling very frequently in airplanes, I just bought some Noise Canceling Headphones,  the Bose Quiet Comfort 15. It's not exactly inexpensive but I strongly recommend them. This technology really works, drastically reducing the ambient noise (AC, fan, airplane, etc...) and I now even use them at work when I particularly need to stay concentrated. Just one last advice, do not buy them in Europe but try to get them in the US, it's really cheaper there.