This series is the glance I carry with me, the one that forever peeks back into the world of childhood. Through these photographs, I rewrite my own history like an intimate walk, finding back the games and attitudes and moments that I lived and now try to observe.
The time-frame which I focus in on is located roughly between early childhood and the preadolescent period. The exact details and forms take rough shape throughout the series. Largely, it is a poetic world: one where lightness, loneliness and insouciance mix.
Today, I am attentive to be only an observer, remaining on the edge of the magic and mysterious world of childhood. I tried to play between the attitudes of my daughters and my own personal feelings. While I photographed their universe, I sought through them to reshape the memory of my own (of which I have very few recollections).
My choice of camera (Holga, mostly) seemed well adapted to the subject. Also, in order to translate the transitory nature of my feelings, I sometimes used double exposures.
In the end, to be able to return to a universe where all is still possible—that was my ultimate goal.
Photographs and text by
Isabelle Levistre
UNITED PHOTO PRESS 2016
