The Happy series. Collage of analogue photographs.

François considers his birthday the ideal marker of time. Like a memento mori, the Happy series are a reminder of mortality, but above all an homage to aging. 

Each birthday marks another year passed, each collage carries traces of the passage of time: from youth to contracting HIV; from the years of new love to the toll fatherhood and aging took on his body.

Every collage of assembled body parts creates a new whole. By rebuilding his body, Francois creates an image of the way he sees himself, wants to be seen or wants to be. He takes possession of his own image, no longer undergoing his body, but magnifying it. Manually creating an illusion of reality with analogue, non-retouched photographs.

This ongoing series of self-portraits started on May 3, 2005 at age 26.