Baptiste Lignel is now shipping his latest project Ce Qui Demeure, which was announced as a pre-release special edition last year. Covering 10 years of his children’s life, a mixture of still-lives and portraits in color and b/w, it’s a beautiful project that has been successfully brought to print.

I don’t know how direct the reference to Sally Mann’s What Remains is intended but the slight reference, if only in the title, is fitting as Baptiste doesn’t shy away from surreal moments but, as Roger Ballen says in his text to the book: “…his approach is spontaneous and perceptive..” and I would add “personal and intimate”.

This is claimed to be volume 1, so I assume, and hope, that a second one will come someday. As father and photographer, I am a bit jealous of this archive he has created for his kids. Unfortunately, and at the critique of my wife, I never seem to make enough photos of my kids, always associating the camera with “work” and not wanting it in the way of just hanging out with the kids. But also as a father of a 7 year old girl going on 14, I will be curious to see how long Babtiste and his camera will be invited to the days at the lake, pillow fights and birthday parties. I am taking a group of 9 giggling 7 year-old girls to see “Rapunzel” in the movie theater on friday, and I think I will seize the chance to photograph, or at least give it a try.

Thanks Baptiste.

The book is published by the photographer-run co-op Otra Vista.

Here at Photo-Eye.