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FERT Bruno
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contact photographer
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• HOMELESS: tents in the city. |
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In December 2005, the NGO « Médecins du Monde » delivered tents to the homeless in Paris. For the NGO, « Beyond being a shelter, these tents are a symbol. They are beacons of distress, targeting the places where those people are forced to sleep »
At the beginning, for me, these “igloo” tents evoked recollections of holidays and nature. Although I was aware of the sad reality, their presence in Paris seemed anachronistic and unreal.
One year later, tents are everywhere in Paris and some places look like refugee camps. Many homeless people have spent there savings to buy their own tents. Some gather and recreate villages in the middle of a square or a boulevard. Others, more solitary, put up their houses far from the public view.
I have photographed these tents as a new type of housing, on an equal footing with the buildings that compose our urban landscape.
I worked during the night in order to avoid any unnecessary intrusion, and I focused on the structure of the city: buildings, metro entrances, bridges, tents, roads, and roundabouts …
These images are not any longer about homelessness but about a vision of a city in our times with the various types of constructions that human beings use to protect themselves from the elements.
3rd prize / WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2007.
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| Features Ref. |
| Place: Paris, France |
| Date: 01/02/2007 |
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