During the period of British domination in the 19th century religious communities flourished on Madagascar. One of them is still to be found in the isolated mountain village of Soatanana. The residents live according to the strict rules of their faith, Spiritual Revival, an offshoot of Christianity. For instance, everyone wears white, as a sign of their purity. Raymond Barthes photographed the village, after discovering that his grandmother had grown up there. He found a completely self-sufficient community, and asked himself how it would respond to rising globalization and emancipation: will it join in these currents, or withdraw still further?

Raymond Barthes (b. 1957, Madagascar) is the photographer for the French national archives. He previously took part in the Noorderlicht exhibition Africa Inside in 2000.