Dual Nationality
Double Nationalité
2022
Various formats.
Project initiated as a commission work for Aperture Foundation, with the support of Fujifilm US.
Various formats.
Project initiated as a commission work for Aperture Foundation, with the support of Fujifilm US.
This series is inspired by the novel «Double Nationalité» by Nina Yargekov, in which a woman wakes up with amnesia in Charles de Gaulle airport and wonders who she is. She starts an investigation following object-clues she finds in her bag and home.
Born in France with armenian origins, I became progressively Armenian as a grown-up, until I decided to learn the language, ask for the citizenship, and get an apartment in the capital city, Yerevan. I started living two parallel lives that never entertwine : passports, keys, SIM cards, wallets, alphabet or credit cards... Everything is doubled. My French friends don’t have any idea of my life in Armenia, and the opposite is true. I started following, like the character in «Double Nationalité», clues that could help me understnad who I am : objects I find, or targeted advertisments that show up on my Instagram. In a series of self-portraits, I dress up in possible Rebeccas, ones that I am, could be, or am expected to be.
Wether it is the self-portraits where I never look totally at ease, the objects that are clearly not enough to define me, or the targeted ads that are always ridiculously out of point: nothing seems enough to define this double identity.
https://aperture.org/editorial/the-double-life-of-a-french-armenian-photographer/
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c570272ed0ca53105e9fe98bf7cc33d6baf7f61fbdc4e962cac067f3ce09f9e2/Topakian_DualCitizenship_01.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd2d9187ec0b239e6073619e8575f09557ea448319364c8f73a5a8ad854353c5/Topakian_DualCitizenship_10.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c2b16e6fd625b33f6c8e4ea2c1c32bb279ec875a6d5b42cd611069714a2e6385/Topakian_DualCitizenship_01.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/29c690eaa26a3a6f6d19f66cb737257ecbf22a711dc8009c6aff71db7b7eab17/Topakian_DualCitizenship_02.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae182c87d608d1caa5717243ee3a97f472676bb853906ae1c1cd25807870b433/Topakian_DualCitizenship_03.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/82a72df555f1940a853f932f8d26a547ca532f939b5638d88b20157881dbf8c8/Topakian_DualCitizenship_04.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/72b37daf38e0cbefc2827e2b2d7865ef6e0095a9eecf7c723d6af2eafeda49f6/Topakian_DualCitizenship_05.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d79b981036fe547ccb1c80ff4439dab34088a1a55f708095c18223f6c0c4fc0f/Topakian_DualCitizenship_06.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0997f76b695b0cfbf5cf2674124106182c7ef43e85373f59f850a7593512fb93/Topakian_DualCitizenship_13.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9b32ded5aa27c8289b6dd6ea6f665eb5cf107ab73d7f3abdd10698edb1be8085/Topakian_DualCitizenship_14.jpg)