Preserving the week

I have visited Auroville many times in the past, and then I took the decision two years ago with my wife Dominique to try to live here, starting with three months of volunteering. I work with Art Service, and at the end of the Auroville “high season” in February 2016, we realized that many events had not been photographed or recorded at all. So I thought, “Why not begin with a systematic investigation with the camera, doing what I like to do best, taking pictures of events and happenings?” Art Service suggested that I create a weekly pdf document of my pictures, and so I began to look into the events of the week and go where the instinct took me.

We now have a visual document of a community always on the move, and this helps Auroville have constant contact with all the AVI centres, who often write to tell me how happy they are leafing through the photos each week.

Sometimes I have the sensation that their nostalgic tears have wet them.

I’ve seen such things ...

An Indian flag rising up in the Auroville bright sky

A perfect metal workshop built in a huge beehive

People in meditation at the sound of a Russian peace bell

Kilos of pasta drained from a one hundred litre cauldron

People in meditation with their feet up in the air

8 square metres of canvas moving in the forest

2 big portraits following us wherever

12-year-old kids riding bareback

Special dolls made of offcuts and love

All those moments will be not lost in time. They will be preserved, like pictures in a frame.