{"id":1177,"date":"2014-10-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/15-10-2014-photo-reportage-on-homeless-rroma-illustration-of-misery-or-favouring-their-exclusion\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T14:05:35","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:05:35","slug":"15-10-2014-photo-reportage-on-homeless-rroma-illustration-of-misery-or-favouring-their-exclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/15-10-2014-photo-reportage-on-homeless-rroma-illustration-of-misery-or-favouring-their-exclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"15.10.2014 Photo reportage on homeless Rroma: illustration of misery or favouring their exclusion?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mediapart (2014) comments \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcritically on the photo-reportages of the French photographer Marc Melki. He \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tportrayed homeless Rroma in the streets of Paris for two years, and published \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe photographs on the Internet, in exhibitions and in picture books. Mediapart \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcriticises that the resulting photographs miss the intended aim of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tphotographer, without him acknowledging this aspect. Melki wanted to draw \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tattention to the failure of the state and the public institutions that allow \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsuch misery, but at the same time he enables authorities and right-wing groups \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto identify the depicted persons and pursue them. In addition, the photographer \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdoes not get the consent of the portrayed families, but relies on the right to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tphotograph in public: \u201cAccording to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tseveral consistent testimonies of those managing the emergency shelters in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrance, they have repeatedly rejected the pleas of Roma families, who referred \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto the abandonment of an earlier accommodation, because of the publication of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tundated photos … In Brussels, families who were photographed without their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tknowledge, found themselves on right-wing extremist internet pages of their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thomeland. One can therefore completely wonder if these photos do not come to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe aid of the police that comes at regular intervals to seize the impacts [possessions?] \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the families, to throw them in waste containers and to drive them to their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdestruction…\u201d <\/em>Mediapart thus addresses an important point that is at \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttimes lost in the journalistic desire to document the \u201cunvarnished truth\u201d. Portraits \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand documentations are presented in a variety of contexts and with different \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tintentions, whereby they are often given new meanings that do not need to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcorrespond to the original photographer\u2019s intent. For people who are heavily \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinfluenced by stereotypes about Rroma, the photographs of homeless Rroma can \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconfirm their prejudices, rather than encourage them to inquiry and empathy, as \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe photographer intended. A discerning photographer should reflect upon the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpossible uses and interpretations of photos that can be used to the detriment \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the portrayed persons. In France, there are an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taccording to estimates of the Rroma Foundation. The majority of them are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tintegrated, go to work, speak French and have their own houses. Many of them \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thave lived in France for several generations. The photographer negates these \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinvisible Rroma \u00a0in his will to portray \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe \u201cunvarnished truth\u201d. <\/p>\n