Valérie Baeriswyl

Photojournalist
    
A good life together : Haiti for better or worse
Public Project
A good life together : Haiti for better or worse
Copyright Valérie Baeriswyl 2024
Updated Dec 2021
Topics Spotlight
10 years after the terrible earthquake that devastated Haiti, how are wedding ceremonies telling the state of the country? A desire for a better future, for theater, and happiness never ceases in the souls of Haitians.

Most of the time, I am a wedding photographer in Switzerland, my home country. When I moved to Haiti, six years ago, I was naturally drawn to what I know best: this mix of anxiety and euphoria which is a universal prelude to the eternal vows of love.

I have been to several cities and in the countryside. I have traveled by all means: boat, motorbike, truck, and even donkey. I invited myself to all kinds of weddings. Some have been in rural areas, while others in sugar-coated palaces in the nice surroundings of Port-au-Prince or slums. In many weddings, one sees what is left of the Haitian middle class, who rent party halls, as a sign of hope and belief in a brighter future.  

More than 10 years after the earthquake that completely destroyed the country on January 12th, 2010, I realized how much a wedding is offering an extraordinary window to traditions, the Americanization of the island, the extreme social divide, and daily resistance.  

When two human beings decide to commit for life in a country that’s considered the extension of hell, you can just sit and wonder. What I know about Haiti, I didn’t learn through political debates or in health centers curing Cholera. I learned it in magical surroundings of glitters and symbols, where two people choose to say yes. For worse. For better.  
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A good life together : Haiti for better or worse by Valérie Baeriswyl
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