As you may be aware, the fabled Atlas mountains have suffered an incredibly devastating earthquake on September 8th. The area most affected is one I know well for having roamed it extensively for a few years, on the ground and in its sky. I was very moved by the images and the devastation.

After taking a little while to process this event, the images and the results, I have decided to make a special sale to raise funds towards helping the populations I came to know well as the harsh winter approaches. This won't go to big organisations as I grew weary of everything big and global. This will go the direct route. A contact on site, organises the building of compost toilets, built by artisans in Marrakech for these communities, which will also bring long term solution to a problem they had before, temporary eco wooden tents until they rebuild the homes and supplies like blankets and clothes for the coming the winter. This is my humble way to contribute.

My techniques has morphed a little but in the past years, I have returned to a slower, analogue, tactile and intimate way of working in this digital age, to turn my focus on our physical, emotional and sacred connection as humans with earth and the cosmos. I remained however concerned with hopefulness, playfulness and optimism. I still believe artists are the fireflies of this world, the guardians of its magic and beauty!

I appreciate your support in advance !

Feeding the soul through nature,

Clearing the mind and the brain through abstraction.

A call toward a return to an analogue life, slowing down took me to polaroids and embroidering and drawing on them

Snow is white and pure, immaculate, until we stain it.

Snowflakes are delicate and fragile, ice hard and yet it can melt or break if temperatures rise.

Will snow become a luxury? Can we protect our planet and bring back better stability in our ecosystem?

Some of these polaroids are set on a recycled paper with fragments of plastic with all the meanings that can hide in this choice.

We can be mindful and playful with nature, or we can be destructive. We can have a structured approach in our dealing with the issues of our world today or we can be totally chaotic, erratic and all over the place. We can see ourselves are embedded with nature or as looking at it through a screen and as a stage for selfie, and resources to exploit.

Artist have always intervened in a landscape through installation or performance like Richard Long or Zander Olsen , or intervened over photographs or paintings like Gerghard Richter or Arnulf Rainer.

One day in 2014 I decided to take the yellow line of the road - this metaphoric abstraction of life path in another series into the sky, for the sky is the limit.

I realised then, as I was learning to skydive for the shot that there are no conceptual fine art photographs done in the sky that I could find. I decided to turn it into a playground for experimentation. It is also redefining our perception of the landscape, beyond the bird eye view. I have spent hours as a kid turning the pages of Yann Arthus Bertrand aerial images marvelling at the abstraction and the similarity they had with biology, I wanted to experience it, physically.

There is also the notion of skewed time and space - for the 30 seconds I have to make the shots - I do go from 4000 to 1000 meters but the landscape doesnt change like it does when hiking. It is a backdrop, the same way a photograph or painting or drawing I would intervene on would be.

I wasnt completely done with the series. I felt something was missing

Then it came to me, I created little characters in child like manner, tapping into that inner child way of marvelling at the world as if it is new everyday in a Alice and wonderland kind of way, especially as our world is becoming has been turned upside town.

This is an ode to imagination, fairytale, overcoming of fear and empowerment of dreams.

In folklore, Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic who, during the Christmas season, punishes children who have misbehaved, whereas Saint Nicholas, rewards the well-behaved with gifts.

The story goes that when wheeling the good and bad behaviours of the kids, those who weigh more on the naughty side are put in the Krampus bag and taken to a cave in the mountains.

The origin of the figure is unclear; some folklorists and anthropologists have postulated it as having pre-Christian origins.

Not everyone can become a Krampus, it is often " inherited " , but applications are possible where a committee takes the final decision and tests the applicant( this includes various challenges and drinking) .

Some of the costumes, like the Tree Krampus made of pine branches are made anew every year, like the whips in a very fun and social evening.

One the night of the Krampuslauf, the Krampus walk, the Krampuses walk and make a big fuss roaring while their chain rattle and they wave their tips, scaring along any motorists on their way.

They walk from house to house where the bishop reads ut loud in the way of poetry a summary of the children behaviours.

When the naughty behaviours is mentioned the Krampuses roar even more.

In the end the bishop puts the emphasis on the good behaviours and gives advice to rectify the naughty one.

Each house hold feeds and gives drinks t the Grampuses as well which turns the event into a highly social and bonding endeavour.

It is to note that the group I followed refuses to take part in the "organised "parade in the town in 2017 that requires each group of Krampuses to walk from A to B - a tourist show devoid of interaction that they do not resonate with. They feel it is not representative of the spirit and purpose of the tradition, which they want to keep intact.

In 2018 however they accepted to take part on the condition that they can take more time and be allowed to stage a little explanation of the whole story behind the Krampus. They made a little chariot for the fake priest to stand on and a table and chair with a young girl sat, all the while the monsters kneeled in a circle around them, in a humbled and loyal pose.

Later I photographed the other groups, who were a lot more feisty, running towards je crpwds , whipping them, emerging through smokes and pyrotechnics and loud music. It was truly a very cinematographic scare show, each group having their distinctive looks and scenarios.

On this matter it is interesting to note the group attached to the tradition had also the most traditional handmade masks and costumes whole others had a mix of more modern outfits, and even props like a moped

There is an interesting dialogue here between the the purist of the tradition and the concept of folklore turned into a tourist attraction.

Lift your tail
Live your tale,
Fairly, Fiery, Firefly,Fairy

Feather and pony

I walk in the mountains and in the woods to find something and someone buried deep inside of me, raw, naked, free. I want to find all the particles that contain inside of them the whole universe, light them up in fireworks. In the wilderness, I am allowed to be, a human in all my multiplicities, like the many branches of a tree.

When I walk by the river, through forest, when I climb a mountain, I remember that I am part of something greater. I am home

In a society, we are wearing all kinds of clothing and masks, the tangible fabrics but also invisible ones. Some of those we are not aware of. They are inherited, expected, accepted. Some are mode of expression and identity, a language that can reveal more details than nakedness, it can tell stories and hide them at the same time.

When entering nature I am allowed to take everything off - stripped of all narrative but the one of being human and As John Berger puts it "Nudity is a form of dress"

In the woods i find strange creatures, and the strange ones inside of me are allowed to come out and play. That can sometimes highlight the clowns i may become in the cities and the grotesque circus i can get entwined in if i forget to be mindful, to slow down, learn the rules of the games .

It is as if photography was an animal and the woods, the forest its natural habitat.

Growing up I didn’t know the feeling of home at " home". I have recently learnt that I am on the spectrum, I come to understand how my inner world and nature are my home. I become a firefly, those whimsical pixies of the night, guardians of the beauty of the world. .

Our soul is itself contained in another landscape. The one that is a physical boundary and link with the outside in a sensory geography. It allows the mind into a larger scope. This physical body lets us touch, be touched and to enter the tangible and playful enactment of it all, a new. A Playground that expands us. A home.

Part of the Series : Weed or Flowers developed in Switzerland as a reflection on tourism and what it does to the mountains
This image is part of fairyland in the series, double exposures analogues with psychedelic blue films ( manipulated with light leaks) which helped me bring forth a feeling of otherworldliness. On the peaks, away from the crowds of the valley I could breath.

The series is an ode “ ​to get on top of things “​ and ​elevate ​ourselves to our best version in our dealings on and with our planet, as in the words of ​Abou Firasse Al Hamdani ​ “وأعلى ذوي العلا “Be higher with the highest “.