Démarche Artistique – The Shadows of the Unknown

When I first traveled to a war zone at the age of 24, I entered a world entirely foreign to me. I walked its streets, met its people, and ate food I had never tasted before. But the more I discovered, the more I realized how much remained beyond my understanding. No matter how closely I observed, I could never fully grasp the depth of the people’s lives, their stories, their realities. It felt as if I was trapped within the limits of my own unknowing—able to see only shadows of people, not their true essence. I became aware of the impossibility of complete knowledge, the vastness of what remained unseen and unsaid. Instead of attempting to reveal a world I could never fully comprehend, I chose to photograph my own uncertainty—to capture the experience of witnessing without truly knowing. This is why I remained in the shadows, framing my subjects from the four angles that enclosed me like a prison, limiting my access to their reality. I deliberately withheld light, immersing my images in darkness, mirroring the way I perceived the world around me. Blackness in my work is both absence and presence—a void and a canvas for imagination.Through this series, I invite the audience to feel the same questions that consumed me during those moments:Who are they? What are they doing in this torn city? What are their stories?
By obscuring rather than revealing, I want the viewer to confront the tension between what is seen and what remains unknowable .