My first contact with Jerusalem came in 1992, in the context of an exchange programme between the twinned towns of Montpellier and Tiberias.

As time passed, I came to see this short visit as the incubating element that, through the circumstance of my wife's appointment to the Lycee Francais in Jerusalem, led me to take pictures naturally, without trying to produce anything, as I usually would when working on a project that focuses on people.

My visual encounters in the Old City fostered my desire to capture what I saw as I lived the experience.

Today it seems to me that the pictures I took in September 1999 - January-April 2000 and March-April 2001 were a reaction to the visual conditioning produced by a factual perception of the local reality and the sensational aspect of the information, which encouraged newspapers and periodicals to publish images in which men became archetypes and the city a backdrop.

Rather than producing cliches, I listened, and introduced real life experiences into my frames.

My perambulations brought me into contact with ordinary everyday life, the real engine of human activity, where I feel at home and where I feed on instants of life, drawn from a reality charged with history and portents.

My multiple "instants" of happiness (by "instants" I mean the result of a capturing of images) are inscribed in the photographs where the encounter offers subtle signs rich in meaning and symbolism.

The proof is in the panoramic shot of the white-robed Palestinian emerging from the chaos of the market by the Damascus Gate...

Or the picture of a group of siblings, where the position of the oldest brother is evident from their poses...

Or those three girls, living their difference within their shared origin and culture...

All situations encountered, where in the end I feel myself to be rubbing shoulders with an urban humanity concealed behind the immense name of JERUSALEM.

Roland LABOYE