“Yelli” (my daughter, in Tamazight) is intimately connected to my own family cartography, and explores questions of heritage and belonging. It stands at the crossroads of two territories : Morocco and France.
My father's name is Lahoucine. My mother's name is Chantal. I was three years old when I first traveled to Morocco. My mother used to tell me that when I came back, I seemed calmer. At that age, I saw Morocco as a distant land where people appeared to be waiting for me.
I grew up thinking I was French - it was others who made me aware of my dual belonging. We rarely went to Morocco. In France, I'm not entirely from here, in Morocco not entirely from there either.
As I grew older, I wanted to understand where I came from. In Morocco, I met young women of my generation who could have been sisters, cousins, or friends. In France, I met young women from the North African diaspora, with whom I felt I shared a part of my story.
I brought together these two youth - distant, yet close. By playing with the ambiguity of place, without naming it, I wanted to keep alive this ongoing questioning of a duality that cannot be reduced to either here or elsewhere.
Author biography
Louisa Ben (Toulouse, 1996) is a French-Moroccan photographer based in Paris.
Her work explores geographical memory and the construction of identity. Through her long-term documentary projects in France, Morocco, and Colombia, she examines the relationship between people and their environments. Placing portraiture at the heart of her practice, she focuses on the intimate trajectories of adolescents and young adults she meets.
She is a member of Les Cousines, a collective based in Montreuil (suburb of Paris) that brings together engaged artists around an inclusive art scene through exhibitions, residencies, and participatory projects that highlight local stories and emerging voices. Alongside her artistic practice, she regularly leads photography workshops for diverse audiences. Designed as spaces for shared creation, these workshops aim to transmit tools for visual storytelling while celebrating personal experiences and unique perspectives. She fosters an inclusive, participatory approach in which photography becomes a medium for expression, dialogue, and the recognition of both individual and collective narratives.
She also works with the press (M Le magazine du Monde, El País, Marie-Claire, Society ....), takes on commissions, and participates in exhibitions in France and internationally.