TITLE: On Akababyeyi Hill

This series was shot in March 2026 during the HUMAN'ISA XXVI project in Akababieyi, southeast of Kigali (Rwanda). The project, led by senior students from ISABTP in Anglet, France, involved constructing 450 m² of buildings over six weeks to create a daycare center, preschool classrooms, offices, and restrooms. The aim of this short series is to pay tribute to the work of these students. The entire project was inaugurated on April 4. Series shot with a Yashica Mat 124 G on Kodak Tmax 100 and Tmax 400 film.

AUTHOR: Philippe MARON (France)

Philippe Maron, born in 1960 in Nantes, has devoted most of his professional career to teaching and research in the field of building and civil engineering. As an associate professor at ISA BTP in Anglet until his retirement in 2024, he worked in an environment closely tied to the construction industry. This immersion in the world of construction naturally influenced his artistic journey, directing his focus toward architectural photography, which is now at the heart of his work.

Passionate about photography since his youth, he has been fully dedicated to it since 2010. While he now favors digital photography, he retains a fondness for film photography, reflecting a relationship with the image that is both modern and rooted in tradition. Over the years, his practice has refined itself and increasingly focused on exploring architectural forms, which he approaches with sensitivity and originality.

In his images, Philippe Maron does not merely document buildings: he interprets them. He highlights lines, volumes, textures, and contrasts, playing with light, shadows, and perspectives to reveal dimensions often invisible at first glance. Each building thus becomes a work of art in its own right, imbued with emotion and meaning. His approach aims to slow the gaze, to bring out the poetry hidden within the structures of everyday life.

His travels, particularly as part of humanitarian missions conducted with ISA BTP since 2015, have also enriched his work. Through his photographs, he documents not only local living conditions but also the architectural achievements resulting from these projects, such as schools and health clinics. These structures, often modest in scale, take on a powerful symbolic dimension through his lens, embodying the social utility of architecture.

At the same time, Philippe Maron has a passion for jazz, which he expresses through photographs of concerts. He captures the musicians’ energy and the atmosphere of the stage with a dynamic and sensitive approach. This musical dimension also influences his vision of architecture, which he perceives as a play of rhythms, tensions, and balances.

His work is thus characterized by a blend of technical rigor and artistic sensitivity. Spanning architecture, photojournalism, and music photography, Philippe Maron offers a poetic interpretation of the world, attentive to the details and emotions hidden within forms and spaces.