{"id":1675,"date":"2014-02-21T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/21-02-2014-photo-exhibitions-document-the-suffering-in-french-rroma-camps-but-confirm-prejudices\/"},"modified":"2022-08-21T07:33:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T06:33:29","slug":"21-02-2014-photo-exhibitions-document-the-suffering-in-french-rroma-camps-but-confirm-prejudices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/21-02-2014-photo-exhibitions-document-the-suffering-in-french-rroma-camps-but-confirm-prejudices\/","title":{"rendered":"21.02.2014 Photo exhibitions document the suffering in French Rroma camps but confirm prejudices"},"content":{"rendered":"

During 2012, the photographer \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHerv\u00e9 Lequeux spent four months in three French Rroma camps in the Paris \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tregion. His work shows the everyday life of immigrant Rroma, their misery, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlife with modest means, the sale of second hand items in flea markets and some \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbegging. He encountered only very few representatives of aid agencies or the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgovernment during his four-month study. He states that the Rroma are mainly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tleft to themselves. One of the camps visited by Lequeux has already been \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tevicted. The other two still exist, for the time being. With his photographs, Lequeux \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgives an emphatic look at the simple life in the slums, but at the same time \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treproduces stereotypes of impoverished, poorly educated, begging Rroma, who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tburden the French social system. He would have helped Rroma to successfully \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tintegrateif he had made a reportage about the integrated, invisible Rroma of France, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ta fact that doesn\u2019t come to his mind. However, is clear to him that the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\timmigrant Rroma do not voluntarily live in miserable conditions, as is assumed \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby some conservative politicians, but would like to integrate if they could so: \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThey want to live as the French do. They \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twant a house, a car, that\u2019s all\u201d<\/em> (Lindell 2014). \u00a0<\/p>\n

Mathieu Pernot \u2013 in his \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texhibition \u2013 also focuses on the visible Rroma of France. With his camera, he \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taccompanied Rroma living in a settlement near Arles. The photos are of an \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taesthetic brilliance, but it wouldn\u2019t hurt if the photographer ad a bit more political \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tawareness. The demonstration of misery alone, even when borne with dignity, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdoes not help to change the socio-political discourse (Paris Match 2014).<\/p>\n