Loin de l’imagerie de violences et de misère que l’actualité impose régulièrement pour évoquer ce pays des Caraïbes, ce recueil de photographies livre des fragments de vie, des portraits, des moments particuliers ; texte de Lyonel Trouillot.
“On ne photographie pas un pays… Au fil des photos viendra une réponse insatisfaisante, mais meilleure que les autres par sa modestie même: le constat instructif mais guère étonnant que tout cela va et ne va pas ensemble, qu’Haïti – un peu comme tous les pays – est bien un ensemble impossible. C’est cette impossibilité que Jane Evelyn Atwood a photographiée”. -Lyonel Trouillot
Lyonel Trouillot, the Haitian author who wrote the preface for this full-color book, praises Jane Evelyn Atwood’s work on his homeland as follows: It’s impossible to photograph a country…..Photo after photo, an answer appears, unsatisfactory but better than others, because of its very modesty…. It is this impossibility that Jane Evelyn Atwood has photographed. From 2005 to 2008, Atwood traveled to Haiti and made color photos of everything she saw and felt there. It was a time of much violence. Many hostages were taken, including two journalists who were savagely tortured and killed. In this climate of insecurity and fear, the photographer wanted to concentrate on the daily life of ordinary people. While the media focused on Port-au-Prince and the Cité Soleil, Atwood ventured out on the island, away from the centers that make the news. Light, color, contrast, shadows—all pop out in this surprising book. It’s street photography unlike any other—and Haïti is unlike any other project Atwood has undertaken.
