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   CEDRINE SCHEIDIG








Searching for Cayenne / cette trac ou fut le sel, 2023



Cédrine Scheidig’s Searching for Cayenne (2023) is an hauntingly evocative photographic series that traverses the intersections of history, diaspora, and cultural identity within the territory of French Guiana. Influenced by celebrated theorists of Caribbean self-formation—Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and Édouard Glissant—Scheidig’s work seeks to encapsulate the multi-layered experience of Blackness and diasporic belonging through rich, tactile imagery. Her analog practice, involving deliberate, labor-intensive techniques, becomes a method for slowing down the photographic process, allowing her to cultivate more paused and nuanced relationships with her subjects.

The series emerged from a five-week residency in Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, a city marked by layers of French colonial history and its own unique blend of Caribbean and Amazonian influences. Engaging with Cayenne’s historical and cultural textures, Scheidig’s images reconfigure the familiar contours of identity, community, and place. Her work connects young people across disparate locales, unified through shared elements of hip-hop, fashion, and Afro-diasporic spirituality. Echoing Glissant’s ideas of “relation” and “creolité,” Scheidig’s images intertwine nature, identity, and spirit to explore a sense of belonging that extends beyond geographic and cultural boundaries. Through these layered compositions, Searching for Cayenne seeks to reframe notions of Caribbean identity, creating a visual dialogue that is simultaneously intimate and expansive.