This week, we present you with two photographers, and with them, two countries. Deborah Benzaquen has documented the Marocain youth and Philippe Blayo, the symbols of America.
Deborah Benzaquen
In 2017, Deborah Benzaquen photographed a girl in college, Mia and her group of friends. Between K-pop and LGBT, her series Sweet Surrender tackles the theme of youth, gender and sexuality. “We had the constraint of our country, Morocco, a Muslim country, but I think that respecting it gave our work a suggestive and subtle approach that I hope to be interesting. Either way, it gave me an overwhelming sensation,” says the photographer.
© Deborah Benzaquen
Philippe Blayo
Philippe Blayo “does not seek what America symbolizes in the eyes of all, but rather what characterizes it, what composes it and summarizes it in order to be able to reconstruct the puzzle.” And the country he depicts here is not one of business centres, avant-garde technology or luxury facilities. The photographer shows that the country remains anchored in the past and seems less sterile. There,”we live side by side with nature, life, death, beliefs and hope. We are nostalgic for hanging on, thinking that we are always a landmark for the West.”
© Philippe Blayo
