For ten years, Samuel Gratacap has been working on the issue of migrants, through art and photojournalism, by showing an image other than what is usually conveyed by the media.
How did you come to work on the subject of migration, a theme that has motivated your work for ten years?
I began to be interested in the subject in 2007 because, back then, I found there was a deficit of migrant representation, particularly in administrative detention centers in France. There was one in Marseille where I was able to go. At this point, I didn’t necessarily aim to or even want to cover this current event. It was curiosity that incited me to go there to learn more about the journey of migrants. I wanted to have access to this reality that I only knew through the media or statistics, like the number of people deported or other very abstract data.
Your work takes many different forms and mixes various media. Why?
It’s the principle of the investigation. Beforehand, I read up on the subject, but I never anticipate my working method on the field or the way I’m going to show things next. All that comes after, once I have the images. On site, I have several tools to lead the investigation: a camera, a microphone… What interests me is meeting people and crossing stories linked to a precise territory at a given time. The image is a very important document because it allows me to capture a representation of reality.
Do you consider yourself a photojournalist or an artist?
Both… I don’t have a press card for administrative reasons, but I work for Le Monde… On the other hand, I do have a Libyan one. My images have a double status; they can be published in the press or exhibited in a museum or at the Rencontres d’Arles, as is the case this summer… My position isn’t decided…
Talk to us about the Arles exhibition…
It’s the culmination of two years of work on Libya… which doesn’t mean that the work is finished. For the exhibition, I worked with Lea Bishmuth, exhibition curator, but also with Marie Sumalla and Nicolas Jimenez from Le Monde. For me, it’s a way to link the two worlds of journalism and art together, two very different worlds that both have things to bring to the table and that are complementary. The exhibition path starts outside the Commanderie Saint-Luce and leads to different spaces with, each time, a specific presentation. The exhibition mixes sound, text, photos (digital, film, and polaroid), installations…
Interview by Sophie Bernard
Samuel Gratacap, Fifty-Fifty
Festival des Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles 2017
From July 3 through September 24, 2017
Arles, France
www.rencontres-arles.com
Book published by Editions GwinZegal
20€
