Delphine Diallo - the woman of the future

She is a photographer; French, Senegalese, and a woman above all. Delphine has lived in New York for the past ten years. Two hours of talking with her feels like you're breaking down barriers within your own body. It's the barriers of identity, of gender, of sex. It's the wings of the women that have been cut off.

Can you start with answering, why New York?

In Paris, I was lost in a system where no one wanted to accept other cultures. Although you could see diversity on the street, you didn't see it in the creative circles. Everyone was French and white, and I was the only black girl wherever I worked. After 4 or 6 years, it had become impossible. I had to come to New York to realize how stupid that was.

Walking down the street, going to the shops, being with my friends - I saw the melting pot. I saw people of different colors, different social backgrounds, all working in all kinds of industries. In Paris, no structure allowed me to be a freelancer, either. At a certain point, I said to myself, "I've got to get out of here.” In Paris, I was signing the death of my evolution. 

So you left to redefine your life?

I was at a point in my life when things were not going well in my relationship. I'd been with a man for 13 years. I was part of the patriarchal system. I was accepting power and domination from the man by supporting him, before myself. 

When I met my mentor, Peter Beard, he pulled me out of that psychosis. Peter Beard saw my talent. He offered to take me to Botswana with him. When I came back, my ex didn't recognize me. The innocent Delphine was gone. That's when I started to be free. A friend took me in, which allowed me to find a job in a restaurant and not fall back into the production companies; not to have people exploiting me anymore. I had the freedom to stop and think. Working in a restaurant allowed me to study people, which also helped me become a better photographer. 

I shared with the Mexicans I worked with. I learned from their lives, from everyone's history, from Americans... The story of life inside a restaurant. There was a lot of love and exchange. You don't get that in an office. I felt like I was being caught up in another dimension of reality, and that I finally understood life.

Do you feel today that you've reached the end of a path? 

Yes. Especially after 10 years, when I turned 40. It's not necessarily the projection I had of myself at 30, but I felt satisfied to have had a dream when I started with nothing. 30 for me, is the first opportunity to define who you want to be, as a man or a woman. 

This search for identity also seems to be the essence of your work?

For ten years, my work has been in search of multicultural identity. Everyone is divided. Everyone is in boxes. Making people "undivided" is quite a task. My work is not about blackness. I often have to say, "Stop asking me about Black people."

My work is about unity. I use people from around the world, but I've never clocked in or posted or said, “She's Black.”

People say, "Yes, but she's Black" and I say, "You can see she's Black." I

t's an outside view on Black. I'm Black, but inside me, it's not Black. I want to transcend all that. The life I lead is the application of a multicultural spirit.

For people around me, it turns out that there are whites and blacks and that's it. I can take you to see Jewish buddies from Tunisia, and Jewish Americans in Tribeca, then I can take you to see my African-American friends, and then to a Mexican-Cuban party. I've created a passage of culture where you're bound to fall in love with other people. 

The exhibition in Arles: "Invisible Symbol", is the culmination of ten years of work on the mixing of cultures, the identity of the mestizo, and the crossbreeding of the world. The invisible symbol is the unity that you don't see. The power of the woman you don't see. 

For this work, there's a whole intimacy shared with my Mother who takes my picture and I take hers. My insides, both my deep pain and my power are invisible. It is my mother who expresses them in this exhibition. For example, people think I'm Black and they don't expect to see a blonde mother in a photograph. So, the invisible symbol is varying realities that we don't realize.

You seem to be saying that a woman's identity is the one that unites beyond all other identities?  

I left the editing of the Arles photos to a woman and I loved what she managed to understand about me. She understood me as a woman even though she is French and white. Who cares? She understood me. It didn't change the fact that I am black. 

Change is going to come through the woman. She's the one who can transcend race and unify identity. A woman's psyche is the same. If I express my vulnerability to you, you're going to feel the same way, even if our personalities can be a little different. 

How do you think you can achieve a rise in the power of women through photography?

We need to express the woman's dream and this is only the beginning. I don't see it, I haven't seen it, even though I built it myself. If you were to tell me today what would be the greatest adventure for women - it would be to see women becoming visionaries in numbers. You need the vision of women in filmmaking, in movies, and so on. We also need visionaries in everything that makes up society, education, etc. We need women to be visionaries.

I realized one day that I hadn't taken enough pictures of women. It became an obsession. Hence the Women of New York project. Women of New York is 9 years of work with 5 photo sessions over one year. There was no selection. I put out a call on Instagram and the women contacted me. I didn't think I'd get this many responses. For every woman in these images, I see incredible potential. I revealed something they had in her. Some of the women weren't feeling well that day, and they expressed their pain. They still posted their image saying. "I take responsibility for my pain."

You'd like every woman to find her strength, but how?

The world is monstrous violence and women take it like sponges. We need a passion in which there can be liberation, a way out of what's inside. For me, it was martial arts. You don't realize how strong women are. Women are creators and they can be of anything. Even the lawyer who helped me save my place is a creator. As soon as we met, she asked me if I was an immigrant and single. She was on a mission and she knew why she was there. And for me, it's the most beautiful thing in the world to find out why you're here.   

What are the obstacles to this discovery?

If you still want to take care of people and you don't know who you are. If you had to draw a woman of the future or take a picture: Who is she? What is she like? The woman of the future - she's no longer afraid of death. She's no longer afraid of life. The woman of the future - she can change everything. She has a role and a mission because she gives life. And it is the woman's responsibility to decide whether she wants to give life or not. That's why I don't have children yet. I'm willing to create life if it's with a person with whom we can transform the world, rather than thinking about the survival of the species.  

The next generation of women is the future for me. I hope that women will transform this society.

Interview by Roxane Cassehgari

Photos by Haruka Sakaguchi