Poetry by Rabei Benkiran and Photographs by Thami Benkirane

Rabei Benkiran, proposed the photographs of Thami Benkirane to accompany his poems, minimalist images of great sensitivity. An astonishing conversation takes place over the pages between words and photos. Crossed perspectives, one poetic, the other artistic, on the passing of time.

In authentic writing, in poetry or in the form of haiku, the author is in search of balance between reason, societal norms and instinctual desires. Rabei Benkiran plays with words and sounds, drawing from his experiences and the richness of his moods, the material to address the eternal questions about Eros and Thanatos. Rabei Benkiran, proposed the photographs of Thami Benkirane to accompany his poems, minimalist images of great sensitivity. An astonishing conversation takes place over the pages between words and photos. Crossed perspectives, one poetic, the other artistic, on the passing of time. If photography seeks to capture the memory of a place, through textures and the use of black and white, words describe the traces of time with an alternation between past, present and future. Memories of spaces and moments between joys and sorrows. The young poet immerses us in a cosmic universe with a style that perfectly matches the artistic expression of the photographer. The latter experiments with a photograph of the unreal, in trompe l'oeil, with shadow plays where one wonders if the photo is taken from life or if it is a photomontage. The photographs sit on the border of the abstract and the figurative, just as Rabei Benkiran's poems take us between the deities of Greek mythology and the imagination of children's stories. A way of using words that suggests living one's present with poetry.