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ON THAT DAY - "When I turned 25" by Yan Morvan

ON THAT DAY – “When I turned 25” by Yan Morvan

With our series On that Day, photographers are invited to go behind the scenes of one of their photographs. Today, Yan Morvan recounts his beginnings as a photographer on an assignment in Lourdes.

Joseph, Lourdes, April 1979 © Yan Morvan



“I was born on April 4, 1954 and I was in Lourdes on that particular day, photographing the annual pilgrimage for a Parisian magazine.

If you have never faced death and distress, I warmly recommend this place, where people travel to in order to connect with each other and pray, where the faithful come hoping for redemption and healing.

Photographing with a Leica has always been an aesthete’s exercise, and I worked like a participant in a workshop, paying careful attention to my framing and to the play between light and shadow.

The qualifier of vulture was perfectly appropriate for my “oeuvre” in progress and I imagined myself soon covered with awards and distinctions for having “sublimated” tragedy!

Foolishness has no age; I went home proud of the work I had accomplished but nevertheless feeling a little uneasy.”

By Yan Morvan

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