The Faces Project

There are landscapes with their vast spaces and plains, still lifes, animal photos, the social world and its endless problems... and then there are so many other things in this world. But why, to paraphrase Robert Capa, not get even closer to a phenomenon that is so close to us: the human being. This mysterious creature, full of paradoxes and capable of both good and evil. And to question all these facets, nothing better than to sweep away the artifices and the ornaments to get to the essentials, namely the human face.

This face that has been intriguing since the dawn of time, which allows us to socialize with our peers, to love, to hate, to flee, to wander... or even to commit suicide (Narcissus looking at himself in a river). A material so dear to artists, from the Renaissance to the present day. Photographers, filmmakers, painters, sculptors have never stopped questioning this face that expresses so much. And for good reason, it is through this same face that we try to pierce someone's soul, to understand them, to see what we can get from them... to identify them. Because humans need processes of identification to make a world.

Except that today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify a man, a woman, an old man or a child, so much so that the codes have become unambiguous. With the power of the media, since the late 1950s, we are witnessing a uniformity of codes and habits of the human being throughout the world. No more particular and unique gestures, as Pier Paolo Pasolini would say. But a uniformity of facial expressions, behaviors and lifestyles. And the advent of smartphones and social media has only exacerbated this phenomenon. The post-modern man tries to flee his face to conform to the universally integrated codes: smirks, duck faces, facial expressions to look cool, funny...

All these postures to represent oneself differently than oneself. A sort of constant sublimation of ourselves through our selfies and our "moments" posted regularly, or even obsessively, on social media. And the mediums to express this are currently abundant: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat. Filters here, effects there... In short, everything that can show us at our best physical and mental form.

In the face of these over-representations of the individual evolving in anxiety-provoking societies, photographer Badr Bouzoubaâ simply sought to lay him bare. And the approach is just as simple: a minimalist setting to pierce what makes each of us breathe and "live": namely this soul that we all try to hide to appear "strong", "beautiful", "attractive". The eyes of the people photographed are fixed on the lens, with a neutral expression to let out what is ineffable, what is uncontrollable in us. Everything that we want to veil in society, which tells us what to do, how to act, comes out instinctively. The result is shots of men and women freed from all artifice. With Faces Project, photographer Badr Bouzoubaâ just resets the score to reveal us as we are; that is to say ourselves with our qualities, defects, clumsiness and what makes our charm.