The age of man gathers a series of portraits of young men or assigned men at birth, coming from different backgrounds and social classes, that I met and photographed in several places in France over a period of three years. I started this project with Alvyne, Côme, and Camara, three friends of my daughter. Like her, they were teenagers who had grown up in a Parisian suburb and were about to turn 18. I found fascinating how each of them, through their quest for individuality, tried to invent different ways of being a man. I decided to make their portraits. In the months that followed, I continued to observe and photograph this youth so different from mine.
It took me three years to complete this series of portraits that address issues related to identity, masculinity and youth. The people I photographed are in the transition between adolescence and adulthood. In this moment of impermanence, the identities are shifting and the bodies are changing. To evoke the passing of time and its irreversibility, I photographed certain models several times over the course of these years.
I chose these people because their presence in the world moved me. There is no “natural” or “model fidelity” required in these portraits. They are the result of a staging and often long and demanding exchanges aimed at bringing out characters whose appearance and simplicity of attitudes take on a singular beauty. Presented in a gallery of portraits, this set shows a dignified human community, a social body composed of a plurality of looks and bodies. A youth on the edge of a new age, the age of man.
This project was made possible thanks to the support of the CNAP – Centre National des arts plastiques, and the Center for photography of the city of Clermont-Ferrand.