Serendipity is one of the nice words of the English language. It is an unplanned fortunate discovery. This is exactly what happened while on a clothing spree at Saint-James. This small town in Normandy should be pronounced Saint-Jââââm and not Saint-Djèèèèmsssss. It is the hometown of the famous Saint-James brand of clothing. it is also a lively community putting together, once a year, an open air Photo Festival. The subject of this year “Rurality”. Eight photographers present their work throughout the village. Their names will remain unkown to most of us: Victorine Alisse, Elisabeth Blanchet, Jérôme Botte, Bruno Compagnon, Philippe Fauvel, Patrice Olivier, François Phliponeau and Hans Silvester, the most famous of them, former member of the Rapho photographic agency and now one of the last great independent photographers who present photogrpahs from his “Pastorale Africaine” book. By lack of time however, I only focused on the display of François Phliponeau’s photographs. Phliponeau is a member of ATD Fourth World, a NGO that works to overcome poverty by seeking out people living in the worst economic conditions and exclusion. As a writer and photographer, Phliponeau reports on people around the world struggling for survival. I particularly enjoyed his pictures taken in Madagascar.
