After many

Rap is a story of spaces. And for Simon Bouillère, it's more precisely the "Dirty South" that constitutes the Southern States. He chose to delve, through photography, into the interstices around Atlanta, Houston and Memphis.

Rap is a story of spaces, times and fictions. Simon Bouillère chose to delve, through photography, into the interstices around Atlanta, Houston and Memphis, cities that, according to local rappers, constitute the mythological Dirty South. Around, because you're never really in town. Everything is still suburb and urban forest. From there, the photographer unfolds a sensitive cartography of this territory, navigating between familiar figures. This project recounts Simon Bouillère's quest to find the right distance to photograph this territory, to assert his complex position towards this culture, which is virtually very familiar yet truly foreign, one particular to the generation of internet kids who dreamed of the USA from afar. The first images in the sequence show us arriving in the territory, which we're getting closer to, until this graffiti evoking the execution of George Stinney, a young African-American killed at the age of 14: the first shock. Because After many works on this dialectic, between the extreme youth of shattered lives, life at full speed to make the most of every moment advocated by rap, and omnipresent death. In addition to George Stinney, it's the figure of Young Dolph, that acts as a memento mori - we must remember that we're going to die, but also remember the dead. The territory is haunted by the violence of its past, which inhabits it in the form of these spectral images, and Simon Bouillère is a witness to it. In this capacity, the titles he proposes for each image evoke a historical fact linked to the territory, an anecdote about local rappers, or his personal situation at the time of shooting this pictures.

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - three years after we broke up
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three years after we broke up

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Seven hundred and thirty days before his second inauguration
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Seven hundred and thirty days before his second inauguration

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Seventy-nine years after the execution of George Stinney
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Seventy-nine years after the execution of George Stinney

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - during
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during

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - After meeting his mother
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After meeting his mother

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Nutso Thugn
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Nutso Thugn

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Lumpkin, GA, one hundred and fifty-eight years after the enactment of the 13th Amendment
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Lumpkin, GA, one hundred and fifty-eight years after the enactment of the 13th Amendment

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - after calling my mother back
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after calling my mother back

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Seven months before the start of the trial of Jeffery Lamar Williams, aka Young Thug
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Seven months before the start of the trial of Jeffery Lamar Williams, aka Young Thug

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - after
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after

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Giovanni et Robert
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Giovanni et Robert

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Before he was arrested again
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Before he was arrested again

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Cherri Woodz
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Cherri Woodz

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - while they deforest
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while they deforest

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Johnny Dang, or thirty-six years after his father immigrated from Vietnam
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Johnny Dang, or thirty-six years after his father immigrated from Vietnam

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Nine months after the murder of Adolph Robert Thornton Jr., aka Young Dolph
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Nine months after the murder of Adolph Robert Thornton Jr., aka Young Dolph

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - after he puts his weapon in the glove compartment
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after he puts his weapon in the glove compartment

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - After he refused to let me do his portrait
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After he refused to let me do his portrait

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - three years before we broke up
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three years before we broke up

© Simon BOUILLÈRE - Elizabeth
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Elizabeth