Jean-Félix Fayolle

Based in Nantes, Jean-Félix Fayolle focuses his personal work on social documentary photography, with a particular interest in marginalised communities. His lens is often turned towards complex urban environments in Latin America, the Philippines, and France.

Fluent in several languages and at ease in a wide range of settings, his background in international business first took him to Germany, and later to Mexico, where he spent extended periods among street communities. This long-standing immersion has given him deep insight into the territories he has been documenting for nearly two decades.

He works regularly with local authorities, associations, companies, and the press.

The project

Title: From the neighborhood to the desert. Between spirituality and a return to nature, trajectories and experiences of popular youth in Mexico. San Luis Potosí.

"This project explores the spiritual and healing practices of young people and adults from working-class neighbourhoods in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, who were formerly involved in urban gangs. It focuses on desert ceremonies inspired by the culture of the Wixarika (or Huichol), an Indigenous people from the Sierra Madre.

The aim is to understand how these experiences, situated outside the urban environment, relate to discourses of “returning to one’s roots”. What pathways lead individuals to find meaning in a return to nature? How are these so-called ancestral practices appropriated, reinterpreted, and reproduced? What continuities and ruptures emerge between these rituals and the various forms of spirituality and religiosity rooted in working-class neighbourhoods? Finally, to what extent do these explorations shape new subjectivities in a context marked by inequality and violence?

The project adopts a methodology combining ethnography, photography, and the active participation of those taking part in the ceremonies. It aims to culminate in the publication of a book that bears witness to this dialogue, as well as in the creation of a travelling exhibition, co-produced with the participants through workshops of reflection and creative expression."

Institution: Agence Zeppelin