Is the name teenagers and young men from the french « banlieues » give themselves, these poorly-known cities located on the outskirts of citie centers.

General impression, therefore external, is a deep feeling of despair among this « population-generation ». We are aware of the consequences of that despair by our maintream medias, what could be the causes?
Against the backdrop of the first national economic crisis, then financial to become economic, then back to finance, meanwhile it has become global. Anyway, daily life doesn’t change very much there ! Economy is long gone. Another missed meeting between these two major actors of the Republic !
Economy, it was necessary to recreate one because that is where the French population is the youngest, the most dynamic, the least supervised, the least well prepared.
To go there imeans beeing prepared to see gray walls, poorly cleaned floors, random ways of access, a screaming lack of public infrastructures. This different world is a mixture of energy, schemes, and so-called « violence ». Reception may seem cold, but only the codes are different. Initiatory passage necessary to advance, because here the camera itself is simply not welcome.

I have been working in these territories for almost fifteen years. In time, links were created, less cold, more respectful. Very recently, while I was having a coffee in a bar in the city of Clichy-sous-Bois, a young man came to greet me very respectfully. After a few moments listening to him, I learned that I photographed him with his friends ten years earlier in one of the cities in the area. By the greatest of chances, he came across the picture in a book and was very proud of it. He offered me the coffee.
Beyond any social, political or artistic consideration, it is above all here that lies the power of photography: humanity !