In October 2012, I went to the rebel held area (only area journalists can go in ) to cover the conflict for the first time to focus on the military and the civilians. In April, I headed back there in order to focus more on the reasons for this conflict. After a couple of weeks in the region, I had the opportunity to talk to displaced people who just left the government controlled area. Moved by their testimonies, I want to capture their struggle which I never heard of until then and work in parallel on the reasons of the conflict.
Back in Paris for the workshop, it made sense for me to continue working on the story of Sudan, and focus on the Sudanese community in France. Paris often seems to them like the exit to a new and better world. Which unfortunately is rarely the case. Prior to the workshop, I was given the name of a couple of places where I could find Sudanese.
On the first day of the workshop I went to those squares by La Chapelle metro station: I found a couple of Sudanese preparing a march against their government. I seize this opportunity to introduce myself, tell them that i live in South Sudan and work in Sudan and explain what my photography project is. A little later, I went with one of them to a Sudanese cafe and took it from there. I followed Nisa, who I met in the cafe, for a day to try portray his life. On the next day, he didn’t pick up his phone, so I contacted someone else I got the phone number of on the first day to continue the story.
