« If you take a picture of a sleeping man, the soul can be frightened. »

Up to 8000 are thought to sleep on the streets and in nooks and crannies of public spaces in Paris, exposed to bad weather, insecurity and illnesses. As the Covid-pandemic swept across the country, the number of people living “rough” in the streets increased dramatically as the parks and gardens were closed.

While government officials and health experts advised to “stay confined inside four walls”, that was not an option for Paris’s vast homeless population. Social distance was a luxury that the homeless could not afford.

All over Paris, there were people living in tents or in makeshift shelters. Some slept in simple cardboard boxes or they had made a bedding out of cardboard. Some have been living on the street and occupied the same spot on a pavement for several years. They are local fixtures – known throughout the area. Their « homes » may be equipped with a bed, a table, a couple of chairs and a collection of books and other treasures they have collected. Many of these people have never lost their sense of beauty, dignity, and self-worth. Many have.

I began to approach them and sometimes talk to them about their lives. Eventually I began bringing my camera along. I asked everyone for permission if I could take a photo of them – also while they’re sleeping. So I had to learn their daily routines, know when they are going to « bed » and when they are awake and active. Many sleep during the day because, unfortunately, street homeless people are particularly vulnerable to crime at night time. Often I had to return several times to the same place to get THE photo.

I wanted to photograph these people at their most vulnerable moment – while asleep. It’s a cliché to say that the dead look like they’re asleep. To me it seems that some of these homeless are sleeping so soundly, so profoundly, undisturbed by traffic noise that they seem half dead. The moment before and when the camera shutter clicked was extremely delicate and sensitive. Sometimes I caught only one shot and then the clicking sound woke up the subject-person.

Photographs of loved ones taken after they died – portrayed as if they were still alive – may seem morbid to modern sensibilities. But in Victorian England, these macabre post-mortem photographs became a way of commemorating the dead and blunting the sharpness of grief. Will there be someone to grieve and feel sad once these homeless people have passed away ? Are these the last photos taken of them ?

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable the homeless population is. One of the men in this series of photos died in May from Covid-19. This I heard from a local storekeeper. This series is my way to keep his memory alive.

I hope I did not frighten your souls !