TRAVERSÉES

“I’d like to set sail like a boat leaving the dock, but things like that only happen to boats.” Brigitte Fontaine

On March 17, 2020, the Covid pandemic halted maritime connections between France and Algeria, abruptly severing ties between many families living on either side of the Mediterranean—couples were separated, deaths went unmarked. Starting June 1, 2021, traffic gradually resumed.

I started hanging out near the port, where there’s a constant traffic jam of overloaded cars waiting to board the Mahgheb. For the first time, I’d received money for a commission. In 2022, the BNF had selected 200 photographers to “X-ray” post-Covid France. I was among them.

A few years earlier, I had seen Elisabeth Leuvrey’s film, Traversées. For several months, she had boarded SNCM ferries, filming this liminal space between France and Algeria. When the boat pulls away from the dock, it’s not yet “elsewhere,” but it’s no longer home. Deeply inspired by this cinematic gem, I too decided to board, to make the round trip, to make these ships my home.

I wanted portraits of these passengers finally returning home, and of the sailors taking them there.