Quand les images prennent soin

Sabine Hess’s project, You Felt the Roots Grow, accompanied the long illness and subsequent death of her father. Softly, almost silently, her black and white images speak both of a bereavement that is unique, and of the profoundly human experience of loss and sadness that is common to almost all of us. Dealing with a particular and intimate moment in the artist’s life – the grief to come, and then the grief that has come – these photographs depict mourning as well as resilience, and each image is subtly imbued with an infinity of contradictory emotions.

Like a River, Daniel Jack Lyons’ project, was produced during several of the artist’s trips to the Brazilian Amazon, in collaboration with young people from indigenous communities. The photographer and activist has long paid particular attention to communities that are under-represented or marginalised in society, and this photographic series is no exception. In it, he explores issues of identity, transformation and coming of age, particularly with queer and trans people. He invites us to enter, with great gentleness, modesty and sensitivity, into their environment and intimacy.

This exhibition is the fruit of the first collaboration between Fondation Convergences and Centre de la photographie Genève, who have conceived it it specifically for Maison de l’enfance et de l’adolescence. It runs in parallel with the exhibition Quand les images prennent soin, on show at Le Commun, Geneva, from 27 August to 15 September 2024.