Work / Roots.Destiny

At the end of the 1960s, a young woman left the Caribbean for a distant adventure overseas, to unknown Europe. On her journey, she met a man and together they drew the card of impossible love. That love became new life, and that new life brought her death. A statistic in a Flemish maternity bed. She never got older than the age of 27.

In this series, as a photographer, I take a closer look at my roots, ranging from the green hills and snow-white beaches on the south coast of Haiti to the gates of an institution run by the Brothers of Charity in the conservative Catholic Belgium.
By rummaging through old photo albums and postcards from childhood and seeking out people from the past, I discovered unknown stories and letters, and a different reality emerged. That there is still so much unexplored, that truths sometimes turn out to be lies. Whether for the best or not.
In addition to my love of experimenting with glass as a material, I started working with both analog and digital images, taken during two trips through Haiti, to ultimately mix them with old family photos, postcards, and transparent prints.

The images in this series do not answer any questions. Like a fever dream on a warm tropical night, they tell the love story of a young black student and a white middle-aged brother of Charity. A story full of secrets, prejudices, and contradictions.
Like a laboratory, life mixes the countless paths that cross each other. Who are we when we dig into our roots?