“The series Huis clos dates from a relatively stable economic period in Argentina, compared to the crisis years of the early 2000s. The middle classes were besotted with the ‘good life’ and the affluent classes just kept on getting richer. We homed in on one of the 290,000 families who have moved out of middle class neighbourhoods and into high-security gated communities in the Buenos Aires suburbs. This residential model found its way into Argentina thanks to a decree handed down during the Pinochet military dictatorship. The people who opt for it have the impression of being able to control their lives down to the last detail, from the size of their lawn to the social status of their neighbours. Each of the five photographers involved in the project followed the daily life of one member of the family in the San Jorge village: parents, children and live-in servants. We decided on an approach like that of the celebrity and lifestyle magazines. The family was happy to cooperate, but only up to a certain point: they didn’t want to appear in a national publication. Apart from that, they gave us permission to use the reportage as we liked. This is a subject that has had little attention from local photographers, and the rest of the world still has an image of Argentina as a mix of poverty, violence and exoticism.”
Biography
Founded in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 2004, Sub is a photojournalism collective with six members in Argentina and one in Madrid. All seven have studied photography in Argentina, Spain and France. The collective functions like a production company, covering project design, filming and editing, and works with the press and institutions. It also organises training courses and is currently developing an educational project intended to finance its reportages.
FESTIVAL
5th Edition of PhotoQuai
Huis clos
Cooperativa SUB
Curator : Claudi CARRERAS
Until November 22nd, 2015
In Front of Quai Branly Museum
37 quai Branly
75007 Paris
France
http://www.photoquai.fr
