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                   Personal story from Clichy-sous-Bois
                                                         
                        Hawa Camera            
 

My photographs are telling a story of Hawa Camera, a girl from impoverished outskirts of Paris called Clichy sous Bois, where most of the population forms second generation of French Africans.It is a district 93, known as ghetto, where most of the Parisians never went to as it was stigmatised by their society.

I have followed Hawa for few years , starting in 2017 till 2023, and still thinking to visit again. In this moment ,

in 2017 I was struck by the photogenically attractive landscape of this neighbourhood that consisted of long and wide concrete building without balconies, which from inside were dilapidated, broken and smelly.

I always wondered how it is for these people to be able to live there. And because I am extremely curious 

I wanted to find someone interesting, particularly a woman, who could I follow for some time and tell her story.

Nothing was very easy. My French consisted of few words and despite the people's kindness, it was hard to get inside the community until I met Hawa Camera and her children. We got quickly friends and I began to see her every few months when I was travelling from Netherlands. She allowed me to photograph her family,

stay in her place, and get to know her life.

I was not very much looking for an issue in this society, but for a character in this environment that I was curious about and slowly begin to know and to admire. 

Besides Hawa, I met Nassim, Mustafa en Tayfun in Clichy sous Bois, in Chateu Rouge building.One of the building that was not that high and desolated state, but pink and in front of it some trees. They were hanging around the neighbourhood together. Most of the time they just follow the people around, going around the blocks with the bike or listening to hip-hop on the street. Many times they were stopped by police circling around and questioned. Police brutality was that time visible and opressive in Clichy due to many small crimes going on in the district, and poverty in education and in opportunities were on the rise.

I started to get to know them in September 2014 when I first arrived to Clichy. They were still about 12 years old. Since that time they became my grateful models. Whenever I come back to Clichy I found them playing on the little square of Chateau Rouge. All of them they were born in France, but their parents came to France from Northern part of Africa  or Middle East. 

With my photos I observe  how the growing up in the ghetto influence their teen lives and further success in life.

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