Protea

PROTEA I made this trip to Benin as a volunteer for a non-profit organization. The intent was to bring food and clothing to the children of Dassa and get to know the child I adopted at a distance. Knowing my passion for photography, I was asked to photograph the children of the center births managed by part of my group. The Protea project was born in this context, after sleepless nights waiting for the birth of these children; the miracle of life, which for the first time in my life, I was able to see and experience up close. Brave mothers who walk to the birth center dressed only in their own dignity. Children who are born naturally in the middle of nowhere ... "PROTEA is a beautiful and unique flower, native to Southern Africa, in the language of flowers it means: diversity, originality and courage”. The most intense emotions come from the unexpected and from chance. No matter how many hours of flight time await you the next day... No matter the tiredness and bewilderment before an unexpected proposal... When life presents you with an opportunity, there are no hesitations: you must grasp it, capture it, fix it in the eternal moment of a shot. The experience of a night in the delivery room came suddenly, like the labour pains of these young women, barely more than little girls. It takes courage to be a mother. It takes courage to be a mother among mosquitoes, dirt and the anonymous walls of a poor hospital. Yet, here, I met life in its most visceral essence. It manifested itself in the suffering and serene looks of the women in labour. I have seen it coming, supported by the sweet smile of a nurse, as she came out of her mother's womb to give herself to the world and shouted: "I exist... This is me!" She stood before me, unadorned, and I caught her in black and white. What could be more authentic and natural than a life generating life?