Malick Bodian was 13 when he left Senegal to settle in Sardinia with his mother. Three years later, both leave to make their life in Corsica. The young man studies, plays football, does not really know what to do with his life, when a Corsican magazine spots his slender figure and his sweet face on a beach. He is 19 years old, here he is propelled into a modeling career. Departure for Nice, where he signs for an agency. Then Paris, where he settled. And London, and all the capitals of Europe.
He has not “never dreamed of fashion”, but he lends himself easily to the game, bends to the whims of photographers, casually observes their know-how. And, very quickly, he feels the desire to go to the other side of the camera. “From the start, I liked photographing my many travels, the landscapes I passed through, but it was especially during confinement that photography became more important to me, tells us in a shy voice the young man of 26 years, from Kenya where he is on vacation. I was alone, I did a lot of self-portraits, and I took the opportunity to perfect my technique. »
Another desire is soon felt, to return to his native country. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, he made the trip every two years; Since then, he has returned to his roots every two months. “I first left to meet my 110-year-old paternal grandmother. I found my home by finding her. » Here she is in one of the images, sunny dress, black and white turban on her head, her gaze lost in the distance.
Like a tourist
From the small village of Casamance that she has never left, he decides to travel all over Senegal, “like a tourist”. “I understood that I did not know my country. When you live in West Africa, everything pushes you into exile. I love this life, but I found it sad to travel everywhere without knowing Senegal or other African countries. »
For three years, he has caught up, surveying Rwanda, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Namibia, Tanzania, while continuing to model and embarking on fashion photography. “I like this balance. I don’t have great needs, so the money I earn allows me to conduct my research in these countries. And also to build a house for my mother in Senegal. »
Because her country of origin loves her a little more every day. There he meets a whole section of his family that he did not know: his father, his half-sister, his aunts. Strangers too, like this woman of the Bedik ethnic group whom he captures in the pride of her 106 years, with her ” piercing “ characteristic nose of this people from Mali. All willingly comply with the desire of the photographer.
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