Nicolas Sansonnet - Rooted
Photography
Although these photographs were initially part of my series entitled “A Belarusian Journal” (as a modest reference to the book written by John Steinbeck and Robert Capa entitled “A Russian Journal”), “Rooted” is the right term I was missing to adequately characterize these slices of life I photographed.
Indeed, when I was in Motol (small village in south-west of Belarus), I was impressed to see how people are deeply rooted in their habits, timeless, like discussing at sundown on the lake (Motol, the lake.
People are as well firmly rooted in traditions, like during the day of sanctifications of apples (Motol, sanctification of apples 1 and 2).
Even the faces seem timeless, like this child spending all his day long in the street (Portrait of Liecha).
In Minsk, the concerns seem quite different but people are still rooted in their own habits, like this woman, showing herself by the window several times during the day to smoke her cigarette (The smoker).