SLEEP STALKER

Words: Elizabeth Bacchetti

Silently snapping the wakeless, French freelance photographer Romain Philippon trespasses into the private realm of the dreamer to make a poignant observation on the universal act of sleep. With a new book soon to be self-published, SPOOK spoke to Philippon about his incessant obsession with capturing humans in their most vulnerable state.

Respecting the calm of the moment, Romain Philippon often stands towering over his subjects who lie lifeless, dozing unknowingly on the ground. ‘I understand it could appear strange,’ he muses from his home on the French Island of Reunion, tucked somewhere between the exotic atolls of Madagascar and Mauritius.

Growing up in suburbia Paris, Philippon had a simple French childhood where he learnt photography from observing his father and eventually stealing his old equipment.

Philippon has since then been stuck in wanderlust for years, traipsing around the globe, learning to ‘listen, watch and shut up.’ What eventually ensued was the creation of Inconscience, a project where he has photographed street vendors and townsfolk engaging in the intimate moment of the siesta. Soon, an insatiable appetite was whet as Philippon became fixated with finding more and more sleepers to snap.

The striking feature of Philippon’s Inconscience series is the warm communion between himself and his sleeper, one that feels as natural as bread is to butter. He works without a zoom to maintain a real sense of closeness. When the time is right, he quickly steals a moment of serenity before the cameras shutter breaks it. ‘There is a fear and excitement in trying not to stir their slumber. I do often wake up many of the people I picture. But each time we have a laugh together’ he confesses.

While Philippon’s images are very poetic and dreamy, they also speak volumes about the human condition, in which sleep becomes a momentary escape from life’s exhaustion. Many of Philippon’s subjects are sleeping in the middle of busy market squares, on street curbs and in transit. ‘As the world is getting faster and crazier, I’ve noticed more sleepers around the streets,’ he explains. ‘It’s quite easy to find people sleeping in non-western countries. You soon discover that a lot of people work 14 to 18h a day, and they travel sometimes 300kms from their home. So they need to take a rest when and where they can, no matter who is looking.’

It is however a very different story in the West, where a nap has become an increasingly rare practice. Our society often perceives sleep an inconvenient waste of time during the workday. ‘In Europe, people would not dare sleep in the streets during their lunch breaks,’ Philippon says. Instead we are rather batshit crazy about spending most of our time with lifeless electronic devices. Modern culture has evolved in such a way that if you snooze, you lose.

Philippon truly demonstrates a raw sensitivity to humanity in his quest to discover different cultures, learn new languages and eat new foods, all in the hope of observing new sleepers. ‘Looking at humans is a never-ending activity; it makes me understand a lot of things better. The world is not as dangerous as you might hear sometimes. People are just waiting for you to open your mind, and go towards them.’

Philippon’s journey shows life as it is: crazy, hurried and ridiculously spontaneous. But above all it shows that at the end of the day no one can escape sleep, no matter how much we resist it. Sleep is the greatest equaliser of all.

Romain Philippon’s book ‘inconscience’ is available for presale at www.ulule.com/inconscience. He is currently selling 250 presale copies before starting the self publishing process.