As part of “France(s), territoire liquide,” a survey of the French territory by around fifty photographers, thirty years after and as a continuation of the DATAR mission, I felt evoking irregular migration was important. I chose to photograph Calais, a micro-territory both local and global, midway between the territories of origin and the territories of the destination of many migrants. Many (too many?) images on this subject have already circulated. The idea was to question the space rather than the people, away from the headlines. Suggesting the signs and traces of territorial appropriation. With distance and discretion, revealing how it is so particular: fenced off, controlled, monitor, and yet ceaselessly crossed, occupied, lived in. Photographing places devoid of all presence, but in a way that lets its presence shine.

Exhibition in “France(s), territoire liquide” at the Tri Postal, Lille, 2014, then in “Paysages Français. Une aventure photographique” at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, 2017.

Publication in the respective exhibition catalogues.

5 photographs.