Abdo Shanan – Dry Series

« Am I an island? Where is my ocean? What is my relation to it? », citation tirée de Dry, Abdo Shanan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2016, through the Africa in Visu platform, I met Abdo Shanan and discovered the images of his series Diary:Exil. This personal diary in staccato black and white immediately appealed to me, like a piece of music that we listen to over and over again.

From that point I followed the construction of the Dry project. The black and white duo gave way to a mixture of colour and black and white. Through his landscapes and portraits, Abdo Shanan continues to question his/our link to territory, his/our identity. This quest, initially personal, becomes universal. The author takes leave of his daily life as portrayed in Diary:Exil to meet women and men from here and elsewhere who, while being part of an environment, do not feel part of it.

Through interviews and portraits, the photographer weaves a collective history in which each word is unique. The narrative cannot be linear, chronological or geographical as it is created by a multitude of experiences and memories. With images, Abdo Shanan seems to respond to the poet John Donne: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent…“.

Jeanne Mercier