My home: Mauritius Island – Keivan Cadinouche

When one flatters the beauty of Mauritius Island, one tends to quote the American writer Mark Twain who would have said, during a visit in the late 19th century,“Mauritius was made first and then heaven; and heaven was copied after Mauritius.”

Well, that I adore my country… But it’s a little exaggerated!

Like any developing country with a strong tourism potential, concrete is increasingly taking its toll on sand and our primary forests are losing their space every day. It is perhaps for this reason that I push against this inexorable trend with my film camera and my black and white film.

The father of three children, I no longer find the island of my childhood, and I find it sad that my children will not know the small Chinese wooden shops, salt collectors or cane fields cut with a machete. How am I to explain to them what a film is and how to take photographs? How to tell them that there are cameras (you know, a box where look through a viewfinder!), and not just the most recent iPhone!

No matter. For 15 years, I feel like a rebel of the image has gradually become a craftsman of a photographer. I have decided to take the best of both analog and digital technologies: grain, with the development of film and digital printing (with the scanning in between).

On this small island that saw me grow into a man, I focus my photography on small moments of authenticity. I go to its inhabitants, the small traders. I borrow those roads far from the axis of mainstream tourism. No poses, no flash, no shimmering colors…just an aim straight at basic realities of life, looking for and finding those little slices of authenticity that make the true beauty of my island.

Whilst the photographs that follow may seem to come from the last century, they were in fact shot only a few months ago.

Thank you analog, thank you black and white, thank you Mauritius!

~ Keïvan Cadinouche

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