I am The Gitano -  Free as a bird

For more than ten years, I photographed the Gitan community of Perpignan, in the south of France: the cobbled streets of the historic Saint-Jacques quarter, the caravans and encampments, faces shaped by sun and life outdoors.

Everyday moments, family celebrations, cockfights, unbreakable family bonds, and the pride of a people too often misunderstood and kept on the margins of society.

None of this would have been possible without the trust of the community’s elders, who supported the project from the start.

Over weeks, months and years, I was accepted.

Doors opened, and so did voices and memories.

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That trust turned into something more. Between 2015 and 2016, I led a humanitarian project, proposed to and supported by the City of Perpignan, teaching photography to Gitan children and teenagers who had dropped out of school.

With a camera in hand, they learned to look at their own world and to show it to others.

Their work was so strong that we held an exhibition together.

I later exhibited my photos at the European Parliament, to bring the reality of the Gitan community before the institutions of the European Union.

Each photograph is a window into a world that is close yet little known, and a tribute to the dignity, history, music and freedom of its people.

This is an ongoing journey. I hope to continue it with Roma and Traveller communities in Berlin, Bucharest, Stockholm and England.

After all, like them, I am always on the road.