This series questions domestic violence and our response to it, through its most extreme expression: conjugal feminicides.
In France, one woman is killed every three days by her partner or ex.
Those «tragedies of separation» or so-called «crimes of passion» punctuate too often the short news columns of the local press. They tell us about similar stories: a man shot his wife because she wanted to leave him. Another one stabbed his partner as he thought she was cheating on him. Those crimes happen so regularly
that they seem to be perceived as tragic but banal events, as if domestic violence was a phenomenon against which there’s not much to do.
However, some particularly dreadful details sometimes manage to raise awareness on the violence of those murders: « Suddently the adorable grandpa kills his wife with a cooking pan »*.
Through the mention of the weapon the violence of the act appears into its full dimension. This is precisely the angle I have choosen to tackle this subject.
My photographic work focuses on those homely objects which are turned into lethal weapons. The sight of those familiar items does not reflect the violent stories they are related to.
This contrast creates a distance that gives time for reflection.
Murders of women by their partners or ex are not isolated facts happening once in a while among some specific contexts or social categories. The analysis of the 253 cases of women who were killed in such conditions in France in 2016 and 2017 shows that it is actually a phenomenon which happens in every socio- cultural categories, among couples of every ages and professions.
Those crimes happen too often to be coincidental.
On the contrary, they reveal a gendered violence that we have to start analysing.
* Le Parisien, the 2nd of March 2017