LE MAS (ongoing project)

This is a homestead set amid the vast marshlands of the Camargue, surrounded by what locals call the pays. Within its walls lives a group of young bull herders, known as gardians. Barely twenty years old, they help run the farm, ride across the pastures, and raise bulls that they later bring to the courses camarguaises, the region’s traditional bull games.

From mid-March onwards, village arenas open their gates to host these emblematic events. Each manade, or bull-breeding ranch, brings one or more bulls to take part in these contests, where men dressed in white, known as raseteurs, face the animals in the arena.

This series explores the lives of these young men and the singular bond they share with their animals and the rural world they inhabit. It looks at a deeply rooted tradition they cherish and help carry forward. Within the small, self-contained world of the Camargue, things seem to move in the opposite direction to elsewhere: here, traditions are not fading away. On the contrary, they are being kept alive by a younger generation.

This world is one of striking contrasts, where a profound love for animals coexists with violence. It is a duality that continues to question me. Horses and bulls roam in an almost wild state; they are revered, even idolised. Yet this tenderness and devotion exist alongside an unyielding violence.

The series ultimately portrays a generation caught between two worlds, poised between heritage and modernity. It explores their place within a changing society, their relationship with rural life, and how they navigate a territory and traditions they are determined to keep alive at a time when so much seems to be contributing to their disappearance.