In the spring of 2020 while France was in total confinement because of the Covid-19 pandemic a few people in my little village had a wonderful idea. It was to try and create an association to help bring the residents of our town together in simple ways through workshops and community events. They wanted to help build bridges of communication between neighbors and create more community pride. I loved the idea! As part of this effort I was lucky that they asked me to photograph the townspeople with their masks in the square on market day. Every Thursday during the summer of 2020 we would engage with everyone who happened into the square to take their picture. It was a great way for me, a foreigner who spoke no french, to get to know some of my neighbors. Then I got an idea. What if we asked some of our neighbors to pose unmasked and also show us something about them that they are really passionate about, a hobby or pastime that they love…something that defines them in a way that maybe their neighbors would not know about. Their responses would be revealed in the form of a gallery show of portraits titled “our neighbors unmasked.”
Well, on Friday October 1, 2021 the exhibit opened and we had a wonderful little party. Below is the exhibit along with a composite of the 200 portraits that we photographed in the square. I want to say a heartfelt thank you to those who were kind enough to reveal their “passions” and also to those members of our association Yz’Connect for helping to make this all possible. Yzeures rocks!
our neighbors during confinement with their masks…and below, those who revealed their passion.
