“One day, in 2000, I discovered in the press the spectral and greenish image of a group of illegal migrants; it upset me. A family memory, until then buried, fragmentary and disordered like a lapidary deposit, suddenly found itself reactivated by current events. That image of human beings hunted like wild animals by thermal cameras expressed the dominating violence of the powerful, equipped with sophisticated technology, over the wretched fleeing war and poverty.

By using infrared film I divert this cold surveillance technique. I reverse the process: the heat no longer draws a target, but expresses the aura of living bodies, their energy to survive. The close links between recent dramatic events — Sangatte, the undocumented, the boats in the Mediterranean — and my own family memory generated this project.”