A Letter to My Parents
Jean Bizimana | Rwanda
My name is Jean Bizimana, and I am a documentary photographer and humanitarian focused on social issues around Africa.
I’ve spent the last couple of years exploring motherhood. I’ve met with so many women to understand their motivations and experiences. One woman told me that “being a mother is love, mercy, happiness, and passion.” That really stuck with me because I have never felt this passion. I never knew the value of having parents because I grew up an orphan from the Rwandan genocide.
This made me deeply curious about the concept of motherhood. And after making work about other people’s stories, I am now turning to my own. I am starting this process by writing a letter to my parents. I am updating them for the last 27 years of my life. How I grew up and what I am doing today.
This letter is a place for me to put my burdens as an orphan. And while my parents aren’t able to actually read it, there are orphans around the world who can. I hope that by sharing my story and insecurities, I can offer them strength and courage.
“My project was initially about motherhood, but during the fellowship it changed and became a letter to my own parents. This helped me to express my life experience and the burdens I faced as an orphan. At the beginning, it was very difficult for me and I was very shy to tell the world my insecurities. But with the help of my mentor Newsha Tavakolian, I did it, and then I was free in my heart.”
