Yul Tomatala

I was born in Geneva in 1993, to a Congolese father and a French mother. In 2019, I graduated from ECAL, and currently living and working in Lausanne as a freelance photographer and a teaching assistant at ECAL at the photography department. I came to photography out of sociological and anthropological interest. Indeed, over the last four years, I have confronted myself with different ways of approaching this medium and I have since endeavored to develop a personal and singular language around societal issues and questions that are close to my heart. Thus, my work lies between the so-called documentary practice and a form that could be imagined as an extension of the latter. As in my opinion, at a time of over-exploitation of images, the role of documentary photography is more than ever used to question the codes of our interpretation of reality and of our society eager for answers. I have always been fascinated by the issues related to modernity, whether these are architectural, sociological or technological. The first project I am presenting here is the beginning of what I imagine to be a long investigation into urban development and more particularly the emergence of new cities on the African continent. The city of Casablanca was a perfect starting point for these reflections.