How do superheroes act when they get older? Sacha Goldberger humorously answers that question with his awesome new photo series called The Darks. The two characters in this tale are Dark Mamika and Dark Papouka (you may remember Mamika from Grandma's Superhero Therapy). Looks like she's ditched her boyfriend, Mister Papika, for a new man in her life. But watch out….together they're up to no good!
How did Sacha Goldberger, the grandson of the real Super Mamika, find Mamika's new man? It's an interesting story. “I met Dark Papouka two years ago,” Goldberger tells us. “I was doing research for a subject about the Holocaust. He had been in a camp when he was a child. We become very close. He is part of the French organization, “Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France.” He makes testimonies about the Holocaust in schools. He was a little depressed the first time I met him.
“I asked him if he wanted to take some pictures for a senior modeling agency. Two weeks after, he got a job. It was like therapy for him. Now he feels better, he has something else to think about.
“He proposed himself as Papika, but at this time I had other plans for him: he will be the bad guy of my series. He is very, very nice, and he makes me laugh when he tries to look angry. A good comic series needs at least one or two bad characters…”
So what's this new series about? “The Darks is a series about the dark side everybody has inside of them. I noticed that, with my grandmother, when you get old sometimes this dark side comes out. I asked her if she was ok to make some images about this. I wanted my grandparent superheroes to be naughty, like in real life. Also, I wanted my old superheroes not to be perfect. They are child-like. When you get older, sometime you are act more like a young child than a grown-up.”
Shot in Brooklyn and Chelsea, New York last summer, these photos along with more (featuring none other than Darth Vader, coming in Part II), will be in the new book Mamika & Co., Brooklyn.
A big thanks to Sacha Goldberger for letting us share this new series with all of you! We can't wait for Part II.
Sacha Goldberger's website
More Creative Work by Sacha Goldberger:
Before and After Shots of Joggers
70 Years Separates Them
