L’AMOUR SE PORTE AUTOUR DU COU

"As a child, I was captivated by the phantasmagorical imagination that overflowed from my parents' family photo album. I loved diving into it during my free time, especially during their afternoon naps. I would make up all kinds of romanticized stories, inspired by the Egyptian films that were broadcast on Lebanese television at the time. Later, when I left Lebanon, I took only one photo in my suitcase: one of my little boyfriend in a swimsuit, smiling at me on the beach. My family photos — the need to (see) them here in my home in France — came much later. I couldn’t say exactly when. But over the past few years, I noticed that my mother was more and more willing to give them to me each time I visited Lebanon. So I wondered whether, as she grew older, she was trying to pass on — through these photos — a family memory meant to be transmitted and enriched from one generation to the next. And whether, like a handover of family jewels, she was unconsciously entrusting me with them so that I could one day pass them on to my nieces and nephews, since I don’t have children of my own." — R.S.