Paris YES
Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins || [ CURATORIAL STATEMENT ] use compass to view walls
Curatorial statement
This January, David Damoison sent me a link to a set of photographs that he took during a festival in Paris celebrating the cultures of African descendants from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, and Reunion.
I asked David if I could create a gallery on OD-CAP because most people visiting Paris, including US Blacks, do not experience this Paris. Of course they pass Black people on the street and on the underground Metro trains but even if they visit the quarters within the Iles de France, they rarely interface with this population. Sometimes there is a glance and perhaps a smile but rarely conversation and I'm sure that much of this can be attributed to English or French language skill levels.
Therefore, photographs in this gallery illustrate a Paris little known to the casual tourist. Many of these Parisians do not live in the well-traversed Arrondissments known to tourists, but are located in the outer perimeter just outside Paris in areas called the banlieu. The East Wall of the gallery illustrates the built environment and images of home in metro Paris, the adjacent suburban communities, and the crowded banlieu apartments on the outskirts of the city. The strength of this photographic essay is its glimpse into the social, cultural, and economic conditions that characterizes this Black population in Paris.
While younger generations of have embraced many of the elements of hip-hop culture that has spread from urban US Black youth to places around the globe, some traditions tied to specific belief systems have been adapted to life in the city of lights as pictured on the South Wall of the gallery.
On the West Wall, we see portraits of families, siblings, friends, the young, and the old.
It is particularly interesting to see the ladies sitting in the sand on the beach, all covered and in coats and the two young boys in their jackets and hats with outstretched hands showing their collection of shells. I thought this must be such a different seaside experience than the one in their island homes in the tropics. Some Parisians have not visited the birth home of their parents, but David Damoison who was born in Paris travels back to Martinique, the home of his father regularly.
LLC
REMEMBER TO USE THE FOUR POINT STAR TO THE RIGHT TO NAVIGATE TO ALL GALLERY WALLS.
[ HIDE ]
This January, David Damoison sent me a link to a set of photographs that he took during a festival in Paris celebrating the cultures of African descendants from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, and Reunion.
I asked David if I could create a gallery on OD-CAP because most people visiting Paris, including US Blacks, do not experience this Paris. Of course they pass Black people on the street and on the underground Metro trains but even if they visit the quarters within the Iles de France, they rarely interface with this population. Sometimes there is a glance and perhaps a smile but rarely conversation and I'm sure that much of this can be attributed to English or French language skill levels.
Therefore, photographs in this gallery illustrate a Paris little known to the casual tourist. Many of these Parisians do not live in the well-traversed Arrondissments known to tourists, but are located in the outer perimeter just outside Paris in areas called the banlieu. The East Wall of the gallery illustrates the built environment and images of home in metro Paris, the adjacent suburban communities, and the crowded banlieu apartments on the outskirts of the city. The strength of this photographic essay is its glimpse into the social, cultural, and economic conditions that characterizes this Black population in Paris.
While younger generations of have embraced many of the elements of hip-hop culture that has spread from urban US Black youth to places around the globe, some traditions tied to specific belief systems have been adapted to life in the city of lights as pictured on the South Wall of the gallery.
On the West Wall, we see portraits of families, siblings, friends, the young, and the old.
It is particularly interesting to see the ladies sitting in the sand on the beach, all covered and in coats and the two young boys in their jackets and hats with outstretched hands showing their collection of shells. I thought this must be such a different seaside experience than the one in their island homes in the tropics. Some Parisians have not visited the birth home of their parents, but David Damoison who was born in Paris travels back to Martinique, the home of his father regularly.
LLC
REMEMBER TO USE THE FOUR POINT STAR TO THE RIGHT TO NAVIGATE TO ALL GALLERY WALLS.
[ HIDE ]