Book project: Tell me your dreams, asks Seychellois author-photographer

Nicette uses a medium format film camera, which gives her photos a different quality. (Yulia Liapoun)

A Seychellois woman living in Berlin, Germany, is writing a second book in which people share their nightly dreams in word and through photographs and is now in Seychelles looking for the participation of her compatriots.

Vanessa Nicette, a Seychellois on her father's side, has been documenting people's dreams for over 10 years and she has already released her first book entitled "Dream."

"Since 2011, I collect people's nightly dreams for my project, where I ask them to write down their dreams and portray them at their sleeping place with my Mamiya 645 camera, illuminated by bedside lamps," she told SNA.

"The dreams are like short stories told by the people who had the dreams themselves," Vanessa added, adding that her first book contains 60 dreams alongside photographs of the people who wrote them down.

With over 130 dreams collected in numerous languages since 2011, the young photographer is now in Seychelles, where she wants to get people from the island nation to be part of the project.

While, for most people in Seychelles, photographs are taken with the best digital cameras available, Nicette uses a medium format film camera, which gives her photos a different quality.

She explained that this is one of the difficulties she is facing in Seychelles though, as she is yet to find anyone who can develop the photos for her in Seychelles and may have to go back to Germany to get them all developed.

Nicette is now calling on people from Seychelles who would like to be part of such a project to get in touch with her, through the phone number 2547942, before November 28. She can also be contacted via her email fotografie@vanessa-nicette.de 

The photographs in Seychelles could be part of another book from the young photographer, whose first book is already on sale through her website; www.vanessa-nicette.de, where more information on the project itself can be found.

Nicette said, "I came up with the project back when I was in my photography class, where we were each asked to choose a theme to work on, where after browsing my notebook, it was simply written 'photographing people on a bed and they write down their dreams'."

She said the teacher initially dismissed the idea, but she persisted and that was when the whole project began.

While this is the first big project by the photographer, she has already been recognised for her work, being shortlisted for awards such as the Athens Photofestival 2022.