The transformation of man into beast is the central theme of these traditional rituals that over the centuries and across frontiers have celebrated the change of seasons, fertility, life and death. To complete this photographic series, Fréger traveled, for more than three years, around eighteen countries in Europe, studying these rituals in the different carnival or Advent traditions. With masks, bells, plants or remains (elements such as horns, skins and bones), these costumes represent animals like billy goats, bears or wild boars, and symbols like death or even the devil.




