This series of photographs could have been called “rurality today”. But what we present here is more of a break out portrait than a uniform vision. During the weeks spent in Graignes-Mesnil Angot, we were struck by the multitude of reasons why the inhabitants live in this county and not elsewhere. With these “photographs of stories”, we have tried to capture the diversity of views expressed by people in the village. This is not a documentary review, but rather an “impressionist” reportage, progressing in a more or less coarse piecemeal fashion to compose an image of that diversity.

We began by collecting stories, memories and anecdotes related to places. By linking these to the pictures, we sought to reveal people’s knowledge and subjective experience of space, a kind of intimate and familiar geography, highlighting both forgotten practices and new uses.