The Inhabitants by Raymond Meeks & George Weld

Book in French or in English, please choose your language, copies will be shipped at the end of August.

Raymond Meeks spent the summer of 2022 in residency in France. Around Calais in the north, and in the Pays Basque near the Spanish frontier, the American photographer followed the traces left by refugees looking to cross man-made borders. 

EN/ Raymond Meeks spent the summer of 2022 in residency in France. Around Calais in the north, and in the Pays Basque near the Spanish frontier, the American photographer followed the traces left by refugees looking to cross man-made borders.

Deeply attached to places, the memories that they hold and the people who inhabit them, Raymond Meeks, immersed himself in France and set out to meet the people who make their way through the country in search of a better life. On the banks of the Bidassoa River, which for several kilometres separates France from Spain, and in the area surrounding Calais, the American photographer captured traces of the migrants whose paths he crossed and the landscapes that they had traversed.

Raymond Meeks refers to these places of passage as “lines of desire”. In black-and-white and in colour, the series “The Inhabitants” immerses the public in these spaces that are sometimes anodyne, sometimes monumental, often hostile, between vast horizons and views bisected by wire fences.

FR/ Attaché aux lieux, à leur mémoire et aux êtres qui y évoluent, Raymond Meeks s’est immergé dans le territoire français à la rencontre de celles et ceux qui le traversent en quête d’une vie meilleure. Aux abords du fleuve Bidassoa, qui sépare la France de l’Espagne sur quelques kilomètres, comme autour de Calais, le photographe américain a saisi les traces des migrants qu’il a croisés, ainsi que les paysages qu’ils ont traversés.

Raymond Meeks désigne ces lieux de passage comme « les lignes du désir ». En noir et blanc comme en couleur, la série « The Inhabitants » fait plonger le regard dans des espaces parfois anodins, parfois monumentaux, potentiellement hostiles, entre vastes horizons et vues grillagées.