Assimilation

Once I had photographed children in Paris for a whole month. Basically, I hadn't been good at taking photos along the certain theme. But I was gradually accustoming to do it in those days.
However to be honest, I had not meant photographed children at first. I always could not decide my theme until I actually got to the place.
But for me, nothing go as a plan. After all, my silly stereotype was smashed into pieces when I was actually there. And what was worse, I came across brand new theme one after another.

"If I study about the people or country in advance, I could find the point which should be focused on" I had thought so. But it must not be true.
Actually, the session was my 6th visiting Paris. At the beginning, I thought to photograph the immigrants, adults in Paris. I knew there are many quarter of immigrant. However, once I got start taking photo, I got some self accusation. "Am I doing right thing?"Paris was filled with immigrants. I could not imagine the city without them. They were so assimilate to the society or even scenery of Paris. At least I thought so at the moment. I disgusted myself who was picking up and photographing them as a special object matter.

From the reason I changed my theme after spending the first week in Paris. It's true the immigrants assimilate to the scenery of Paris. But adults tended to make a group with same culture or nationality. Compare to that, children's society didn't look like that. They had a good relationships with their friends who had different back ground. I got some key words from that. "I shouldn't pick up certain subjects from the society. I just express the society they assimilate and, at the same time, respect each child's personality" That's the very concept of my photo work "souvenirs"

I finished the photo session successfully. However several years later, I got shock. Because I saw the news about the riots in Paris. I believed they, immigrants, completely assimilated to the society. But actually, they had frustration and even anger to the French government and society. In spite of taking photos for a whole month, I couldn't see any thing. I ashamed of that.

The children who became my model, will they come across the social inconsistency in the future? I think they already know it. I see the photos again thinking about it. Each child in the photo looks so mature to me.