ANASTASIA

I photographed Anastasia at the Palais de Tokyo (and around). She is working with Ford Models in Paris, and she's from Russia. I was relieved when she started talking to me in english, and not in french. I realized it's easier for me to give directions to a model in english, for different reasons. The first one is that i feel more vulnerable using another language, and therefore closer to the person I photograph. The second one is that in my hesitations, my mistakes, my silences, my inaccuracy, there is room for interpretation. That room is like a series of gaps that the person I photograph can use or play with; we relate within them, and there is more freedom for both of us. This is why sometimes i wish i could use my own language as a foreigner (just like i found happiness in rediscovering my city after being away for a while); and this is why my english, when I shoot, is probably way worse than what it is in 'real life'.