Zarlor

The Cirque of Mafate is an emblem, the beating heart of Reunion island’s culture and history. Alongside its last communities, Zarlor explores the relationship between geographic isolation, memory, and identity within a post-colonial context.

Zarlor
Zarlor: masculine noun, Réunion Creole: treasure, heritage

At the center of the island of Réunion lies a deep valley, surrounded by walls of basalt: the Cirque de Mafate. A volcanic collapse torn apart by slanted peaks, carved by torrents, and covered in lush vegetation. It is here, without roads or electricity, a six-hour walk from the nearest town, that a few hundred people live within the Réunion National Park, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mafate is like an island within an island. It is an emblem, the beating heart of the island’s culture and history. I walked its trails and visited its nine îlets, remote hamlets where the people of Mafate lead a suspended life, turned toward nature in a form of joyful simplicity. Zarlor is the result of this encounter, a travel journal of a territory familiar to me since my childhood in Réunion. Alongside the last communities of the Cirque de Mafate, I explore the relationship between geographic isolation, memory, and identity within a post-colonial context.

By combining my practice of digital photography and large-format Polaroid, I sought to preserve the memory of these places threatened with disappearance due to their gradual depopulation. Each Polaroid portrait was made in duplicate and offered to the people photographed. This parallel series, scattered across the îlets of the cirque, is my zarlor, hidden within the folds of my memory and the mountains of Mafate.

This project was produced as part of the “Radioscopie de la France” major commission, led by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.