A photographer returned to Cannes after having a baby and noticed a shift in how people related to her. She had fewer bookings and felt the change. With more time and a personal urge to shoot, she started a documentary-style portrait project focused on people the cameras rarely show. She had lost her voice and did not speak French, so she used Google Translate to ask questions while walking around with her phone as a sign. She interviewed street cleaners, taxi drivers, cooks, lifeguards, shop owners, security staff, and beachgoers, building connections through curiosity and shared moments.
"I lost my voice on day one. Like, fully. Gone. Arrived in the evening, dinner was loud, I talked over too many people and woke up the next morning with nothing. Not a great start to a festival where the plan is to photograph people and ask them questions."
"It was my first Cannes after having my baby. I never actually stopped shooting, not for a second, but from the outside something shifts the moment you become a mother. She has a kid now, she's probably not as available, probably not as into it. I had fewer bookings than usual, and I felt it."
"So, with no voice and the French of a confused tourist, I typed a question into Google Translate and walked around Cannes holding up my phone like a little sign. The phone was going to do the talking either way."
"I asked the man cleaning the streets, a taxi driver, the cook and the lifeguard from the Ritz-Carlton. I asked the couple with their tiny tailoring shop, who get the stylists of huge stars walking in during the festival and barely sleep for three weeks and love every second of it."
Read at Sleek Magazine
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]