Je passe où j'écris ("Where I Write") - 2022–2023

The Institut’s artistic and cultural transmission program combines critical and sensory approaches to photography, through projects designed to engage a diverse range of audiences. As part of a collaboration with the Pas-de-Calais Department, photographer Hugo Clarence Janody was invited to spend a week in residence at the Reception and Assessment Center in Nédonchel.

While photography is an everyday practice through which we express our relationship with the world, it is virtually nonexistent in this temporary shelter for exiles, who instead seek to preserve their anonymity. The exhibition highlights the project’s inclusive approach, which made it possible to create these intimate and candid portraits.

The postcard first served as an introduction to photography as a storytelling medium for the participants, through a selection from the Fleury Delomez collection in the Pas-de-Calais Departmental Archives depicting Thessaloniki —one of the possible stops along the migration route—and the Nédonchel region.

Participants were given their first opportunity to try their hand at portrait photography using a Polaroid camera, which produces a single instant positive print that some chose to take home with them.

As the days went by, Hugo Clarence Janody also shared in these people’s daily lives. While his images document seemingly simple and ordinary moments, they convey both the fragility of their circumstances and the individual and shared nature of their aspirations.

Learn more about our transmission project