JAMES RAJOTTE

James Rajotte is a native of Central Pennsylvania and has been photographing the change in the area for the past six years. He attended Penn State University where he studied Geographic Information Science before moving to Rochester, New York to pursue photography. In Rochester, James worked closely with the photographer Nathan Lyons. James now lives in Madrid, Spain with his partner, Maria, where he is an editorial photographer contributing regularly to El País and the New York Times while continuing working on long-term personal projects and expanding his view of documentary photography. Today we take a look at his series titled, The Story of Frenchville (2007-2012).

Nestor

Susquehanna River

The Story of Frenchville (2007-2012)

The following are quotations of Nestor Billotte who is pictured in the first image in the series. Nestor was a lifelong resident of Frenchville, Pennsylvania and he died in 2009.

Original in French. Translated to English

A parler le français du grand père puis et père et mère. Ca fait qu’on parlait la même chose. Si le grand père puis mère puis père prononçaient pas comme il faut, on ne prononçait pas comme il faut non plus.. Quand il vivait on parlait un petit plus qu’on ne parle a présent. Apres mon frère il est comme moi, il ne parle pas comme on devrait. Ca fait qu’on ne peut pas… we can’t get any better.

Oh oui, ca c’est sur qu’on a oublié, des coups je pense comment que je voudrais dire ces mots ci . Puis je pense, je pense, je pense, des coups ca vient, des coup ca vient pas. Comme des mots que je parlais avec vous il faudrait que j’arrête puis que je pense puis ca serait le soir d’ici à ce que je pense ce que je voulais dire. C’est pas comme si on parle tout le temps tout le temps tout le temps. C’est pas souvent du tout.

Our grandfather and mother and father spoke French. We spoke as they did. If they didn’t pronounce it the way it should be, we didn’t pronounce it the way it should be either. My Cousin, he spoke French much better than I did. When he was alive we spoke French a little bit more than now. My brother is like me, he doesn’t speak as we should. It makes that …..we can’t do any better.

Oh yes, this is for sure that we forgot. Sometimes I am figuring out how I would like to say some words. I am thinking, thinking, thinking, sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’t. As I am speaking to you, I would need to stop then think and it would be nighttime until I figure out everything I want to say. It is not as if we speak all the time. It doesn’t happen very often at all.