JPM
France, July 2022 - Present

JPM is a developing book project that holds space for a photographic dialogue to mourn my dad. It is also an exploration of my Algerian roots.

My dad, Jean-Pierre Muller, suddenly passed away at age 68 in Toulouse, France, on February 20, 2022. He was going to turn 69 on March 17 that year. Due to the Covid-19-related travel and visa restrictions, I couldn’t fly from Los Angeles to attend his funerals. 

He was born in Algiers, Algeria, and raised during the Algerian War of Independence, before moving to France in the early 1960s with his parents and three sisters. He became a photojournalist at Agence France Presse and covered French and International news. While he came back in my life and we became close at the end of his life, I sadly did not know him much, since my parent separated when I was 2 years old. 

At this point, the project consists of pictures of his house as I found it in July and August 2022, after being unable to travel to France for three years. Last time I saw my dad in person was in December 2018. The house was intact but I had really little time to sort through it and sell it before flying back to Los Angeles in late August 2022. Grief struck hard. My loss became all the more real.

Additional material that is yet to be produced and that will be interwoven into the project comprises: his personal documents, extensive archive of scanned negatives, landscapes he loved, 3d scans of his personal belongings and photographic gear.

More to follow as most of the material I saved is in France.