Deleon Bigwoods : chroniques d'un village jamaïcain

Memories of a rural Jamaican community built around its sound system.

Between 1991 and 2025, I photographed everyday life in Deleon Bigwoods, a small village in the hills of Westmoreland, Jamaica. Every evening, a bar-grocery store became the beating heart of the community around its sound system, the 'Prosperous'.

These photographs tell as much the story of Reggae Dancehall as the memory of a rural world now undergoing profound change. I had never planned to exhibit them. The passage of Hurricane Melissa in October 2025 shattered that certainty.

Several of the places I photographed were destroyed. The exhibition brings together portraits and scenes of everyday life, punctuated each evening by a massive, homemade sound system.

Anyone wishing to extend this encounter can take part in local action through the organisation Jah Works Experience, long committed to rural co-development in Jamaica. Stéphane Delphin