15 bis

Overview

Born on September 17, 1919, my grandfather - whom I only knew until the age of 4 - worked as a hairdresser in his salon, at 15 bis avenue Liegeard, in Livry-Gargan, in the Parisian suburbs, from 1964 to 1980. All that remains of her activity is the testimony of my grandmother and her husband's work tools, which she treasures. No doubt because in them still resides the repeated gesture of the craftsman, since that is what boy hairdressers were called until the 1980s. Just looking at them brings a vanished world to life before my eyes, and I can easily imagine these ancient times: my grandfather already well established in his salon, getting down to business, like a good artisan hairdresser of the years 1970. So, discovering these tools, I wanted to do some sort of memory work, reconstituting the past with and through them.