Father and son, 2016, China. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The project has also included some Chinese fathers and sons, what kind of people are they? Can you describe the relationship between Chinese fathers and sons from what you've observed during the shooting session?

Before coming to China, I've questioned myself whether Chinese fathers and sons will give themselves in tenderness with abandon. I thought that they might be too modest and the body to body contact would not be as evident as, for example, Brazil. I was surprised to note that the native Chinese men are very different from the Chinese residents in France that I had the chance to shoot. Some took each other in their arms, others kept a certain distance. I experienced, during the photo shootings, certain absoluteness in the bond between the fathers and sons in China.

I take photos of men half naked for a number of reasons: first, I work with the human body, the stigma and metamorphosis of it. Also, as this project was born from my son's question on skin colors, I made bare skin the central focus of my work. At last, without clothing, there's no social reference and no back stories, the men who present themselves are equal in the eyes of the observer.

Do you have any particular moments that made an impression while shooting the project? Or stories to tell?

I will tell two stories that occurred during the shooting of the project in China. I remember there was this little three-year-old boy who didn't want his photos taken. He refused to remove his T-shirt. The father spoke to him for a long time until the child finally agreed to the shoot. I sensed that this shoot was very important for the father, who was more than 60 years old and had a very serious illness. There was this other father who came in with his teenaged son and his old and dependent father, during the shoot this man was deeply touched and very solemn. I do not know what happened in his life, because I do not speak Chinese, but I know he wanted those photos. Those two examples show what interests me the most, that the father and son who came in for the shoot are also doing it for their own benefit. I do not need to know their reasons, it's enough for me to feel the intensity of their motivations.