The head in the stars
I've always loved to get lost in the vastness of the sky. I grew up in the country, far from the pollution of cities. A small village lost in the middle of the wheat fields. In the evening, I was lucky enough to be able to observe the thousands of stars above my head.
In the rare moments when the sky was overcast, I had my planetarium that allowed me to project constellations and stars on the ceiling of my room. There were many opportunities to travel to the ends of the universe...
The moon too, this lovely lady. Isn't she always beautiful to look at at nightfall? When I think we managed to reach her and land on her soil. It's a little extraordinary, isn't it?
A friend's father was offered a huge telescope for his birthday. For the first time ever, I had been able to observe the craters on the surface of the Moon so closely. It was unbelievable.
And then these white clouds that move above us, sometimes forming astonishing shapes, what would we be without them? I like to play with them by taking pictures of them. I could spend hours photographing them, capturing the sky and its many shades of colour.
All those evenings I spent sitting somewhere in a corner of the garden, looking at this infinite space. These are probably the periods when I travelled the most. Travelling like no other, since only my mind took off to distant lands. My body was there, immobile and relaxed, in ecstasy before the beauty of the world.
I remember the month of August last year. We had spent a good hour with my mother observing the celestial vault while it was dark. It was during the famous Perseids, these rains of shooting stars that one can observe once a year during the night of the stars. I counted more than 19 of them that night, a wonderful sight.
Things are going on up there. What little girl, what little boy didn't one day surprise himself to dream by simply raising his head towards the sky? How many stories were born under the starry sky to observe the Milky Way?
I'm 31 years old, but I'm still that little boy with the eyes that shine when he looks up there.
This young woman in the picture illustrating this story. What does she look lost in the middle of this dark forest? Is she looking for light at the top of trees? A bird in the sky? Did she see an animal perched somewhere on a branch?
I don't know, nobody knows, except the photographer who captured the moment. But this woman has a smile, the position of her hands suggests that she is relaxed, happy to live this moment.
I must be a dreamer. Besides, I never stop thinking and imagining things. My brain works continuously without really pausing. It's a little tiring sometimes. But I don't really feel like going back down to Earth. I'm fine up there. Life is lighter, more seductive.