Can the present become possible if the pain of the past remains unspoken? Can the future become imaginable? Joan of the Dark embodies a quest for the invisible stemming from oblivion and absence, indeed from a silence in my home region, a silence tied to the rising waters of the immense body of water it is built around. Known at different times as the Laflamme Sea, Piekoukami, or Lac Saint-Jean, this vast lake hides the sunken village of Joan-of-Arc, which ended up being flooded by powerful industrialists. Relatively little of this history and the activism surrounding it lives on: stories of the lives, struggles, and trauma of the displaced. However, I was able to find refuge in these fragmented stories, thanks to my relationship to drowning and silence, one forged by my own family history. Guided by the necessity to channel the suffering that connects us, and to create a meaningful rift in the ambient danger, I hiked the shore of this vast lake, and discovered that what is silenced will always end up coming back to the surface to consume us.
2020—2022
-Shortlisted, Young Portfolio, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
-Shortlisted, All About Photo Awards
-Special mention, Urbanautica Institute x Ragusa Foto Festival
