We continue and present the projects selected by Les Nuits Photographiques 2015 awards, which took place on September 19th. Today is about “Résidence principale“, directed by Florence Brochoire, french photographer.
Adoma runs residential shelters with a total of more than 70,000 social housing units across France. The organisation was founded in 1956 under the name Sonacotral (or SOciété NAtionale de COnstruction pour les TRAvailleurs Algériens) with the initial purpose of accommodating Algerian workers who had come to France to make up for the insufficient national labour force. It was also responsible for housing the inhabitants of shanty towns like the one at Nanterre. The private rooms, measuring 9 square metres with access to shared showers, toilets and kitchens, were meant to form a temporary solution but, all too often, they became the residents permanent home.
Three name changes later, the organisation has now launched a far-reaching plan for emergency renovation of its buildings. At the same time, it is being quietly privatised, and there is a risk that this effective system of access to housing could be destroyed.
A year ago, as a way of bringing the institution into the public eye, I embarked on a project to document the lives of residents in the Adoma shelter in Evreux. I initially thought that it mainly accommodated Chibanis (retired Maghrebi people) and I produced a portrait of Yahia, an Algerian belonging to the first generation of immigrant workers. Then I turned to Diong from Casamance (Senegal), and William who came from Haiti but was unable to work.
I’m presenting Yahia’s portrait today. Because although the Evreux shelter offers 225 places, there are now only 41 Chibanis left there. I wanted to draw attention to the story of this man who came to work in our factories, proud to have obtained French nationality even though the country has often rejected him.
The combination of photography, sound and video to conduct the interview quickly seemed the obvious choice to me, as is often the case in my documentary work.
I’d like to extend this series of shorts to produce other portraits, documenting the different origins of the people living in the Adoma shelter today. They include political refugees, single-parent families and young people in need of urgent help. The variety of profiles illustrates changes in migratory flows in France and the increasingly vulnerable situation experienced by many of our citizens. Les Nuits Photographiques could therefore be a great opportunity to share Yahia’s story, to talk about these issues and to raise the visibility of the project so that I can continue working on it.
http://www.florencebrochoire.com
http://www.signatures-photographies.com
http://lesnuitsphotographiques.com
