mathieu_pernot_theredlist.png” alt=”Afghan migrant covered with blanket on the bench in Paris” width=”610″ />
This series of photos made by Mathieu Pernot was realized in Paris, by Villemin Square where many Afghan migrants gather. Invisible, silent and anonymous, reduced to their simple forms, they sleep and hide themselves from the public gaze, with drawing from a world which no longer wants to see them. Both present and absent they remind us of the bodies found on the battlefields of a war we no longer see.
Sebastiao Salgado photobook – “Migrations”
In the book Migrations, Sebastiao Salgado turns his attention to the staggering phenomenon of mass migration. Photographs taken over seven years across more than 35 countries document the epic displacement of the world’s people at the close of the twentieth century. Wars, natural disasters, environmental degradation, explosive population growth and the widening gap between rich and poor have resulted in over one hundred million international migrants, a number that has doubled in a decade. This demographic change, unparalleled in human history, presents profound challenges to the notions of nation, community, and citizenship. The first extensive pictorial survey of the current global flux of humanity, Migrations follows Latin Americans entering the United States, Jews leaving the former Soviet Union, Africans traveling into Europe, Kosovars fleeing into Albania and many others. The images address suffering while revealing the dignity and courage of the subjects. With his unique vision and empathy, Salgado gives us a picture of the enormous social and political transformations now occurring in a world divided between excess and need.
Church Gate Station, Western Railroad Line, Bombay, India. © Sebastião Salgado The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
2.photoireland.org/mb/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Canal-District-San-Rafael-2006-Web.jpg” alt=”A Photo by Larry Sultan- Hispanic migrants in the fields walking” width=”610″ /> Canal District San Rafael, 2006 From the series Homeland, “Katherine Avenue” by Larry Sultan
In his final body of work, completed shortly before he died last year, Larry Sultan photographed migrant Hispanic workers in the Bay Area of San Francisco, near where he lived. Often undocumented migrants, they gather at specific locations in the early morning – builders’ merchants, freeway off-ramps, etc – and stand around, hoping to be hired for the day. Larry would explain his purpose and hire them to act in his tableaux. Always set within a broader landscape, his Hispanic actors would occupy the margins of the American Dream, performing daily tasks outside the village, away from the homes, wandering in a homeland that excludes them.
Katherine Avenue’, by Larry Sultan, is published by Steidl, £45. The book accompanies an exhibition at Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany which runs until 22 August
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/larry-sultan-the-king-of-colour-photography-2043204.html
