Anita Pouchard-Serra
CALAIS - LATENT URBANITIES
Photography
2016

Photographic and drawing essay about the New Jungle of Calais, the spontaneous refugee camp on the border be- tween France and England that took place between April 2015 and October 2016. It is an unconventional story, which seeks to distance itself from the media image to pro- pose another approach to a stigmatized place. It seeks to reveal how this place gradually transformed into a real city, self-constructed by refugees and volunteers. While waiting for a hypothetical crossing, you have no choice and you have to live, to build and still being yourself, in spite of everything. The result is a cross between my sketchbook, which accompanied me during the 4 months of work, and my photographic images. These tell about terri- tory, the theater of daily lives recreated from nothing. The drawings bring the viewer into the world of intimacy and de- tails, leaving them a greater degree of imagination.

About the artist

Anita Pouchard-Serra Born in 1985, she lives and works between Paris, Buenos Aires and Latin-America. As a self-taught photographer at the beginning, she finally graduat- ed in photojournalism from ARGRA Escuela in Buenos Aires (Association of Graphic Reporters of Argentina) and Specialization in documentary photography from the University of Buenos Aires and she have received a scholarship from the Foundation Pedro Meyer and World Press Photo to follow the program “Fotonarrativa y Nuevos Medios” in Mexico. Her work revolves around questions and territories that cross her personally, connected with current societal problems around identity, migration, empowerment and territory with a transdisciplinary approach. Talk about actuality but on a longer time or to bring other lights. She worked with collectives Ojo de Pez and Compromiso Fotografico (AR) giving workshops of photojournalism in the underprivileged neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and Paroles de Photographe (FR) and as a teacher in several schools.

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Courtesy: the artist