photography by matthieu alexandre
www.matthieualexandre.net
Presentation of a series of photo essays produced between 1997 and today.
Workless Hopeful Workers
France, Belgium, Lebanon, USA, Brazil, Burkina-Faso, Benin, India (1997-2007)
Workless Hopeful Workers has been shortlisted at Visa pour l'Image (Perpignan, France, 2004) and exhibited at Festival du Scoop et du Journalisme (Angers, France, 1999)
Created by the late French catholic priest Abbe Pierre after WWII in 1949 Emmaüs, offering unformal jobs and shelter to homeless and workless people, spread around the world. The story focuses on the fact that even if the concept was created and exported by a catholic priest, the Emmaüs communities accept and help people from any religion.
Rural Hospitals
Ghor & Hazaradjat provinces, Afghanistan (2003)
Photo essay for Medecins du Monde and Le Secours Catholique-Caritas on rural health centers in remote provinces of Afghanistan.
HIV/AIDS Prevention Program
Cyangugu, Rwanda (2006)
Photo essay for the NGO Le Secours Catholique-Caritas on HIV/AIDS prevention programs in Rwanda.
Bhutanese Camps
Jhapa, Nepal (2004)
The Bhutanese refugees first entered Nepal at the end of 1990. Temporary camps were established on the banks on the Mai river. These temporary camps are still there 15 years later. Refugees and the local population compete for some environmental resources, such as the collection of dead wood for fuel and the supply of bamboo for construction.
Tibetan Protest
Kathmandu, Nepal (2008)
In 2008, part of the Tibetan community in exile in Nepal demonstrated at the gates of the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu to protest against the Olympic games organized in Beijing and campaign for a free Tibet.
Iraqi Refugees
Dohuk, Iraq (2004), Beyruth, Lebanon (2009) Damas & Alep, Syria (2009), Paris, France (2010)
Portraits and collection of testimonies of displaced and exiled Iraqis in the Middle East. And Iraqi refugees descent from plane seeking asylum in France.
The Dangers Girls In Nepal Face When They Get Their Periods
Kathmandu, Nepal (2012)
Confinement in the darkness
A 12 year old Brahmin Nepali girl returned to school after spending 7 days staying in the darkness of her bedroom as part of an isolation ritual during her first menstruation. Usually Brahmans stay isolated for 21 days in the dark, without the permission to look outside, see any men, pray or cook, but in modern families the ritual can be reduced to 7 days and this young girl was allowed to read.
A Man of Peace
Bossangoa, Central African Republic (2013 & 2014)
Central African chaos turns Archibishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga into a driving peacemaker.
The archbishop of Bangui, 47, travels through his country with the Imam Omar Kobine Layama, president of the Central African Islamic Community and reverend Franco Mbaye-Bondoi of the Evangelical Alliance of the Central African Republic, to meet the two parties in conflict, the Seleka and the anti-Balaka, in order to disarm the conflict by explaining that the three religious spiritual leaders walked hand in hand in peace. For Nzapalainga the conflict is anything but a religious conflict.
Syrian Refugees
Zahle & Tripoli, Lebanon (2014)
Syrian refugees has been exhibited at Expo2015 (Milano, Italia, 2015)
Photo essay in camps with Syrian refugees in the eastern Bekaa valley and action of the migrant center near Tripoli.
Life on Ukraine’s frontline
Chermalyk, Donetsk (2015)
A village on the frontline of Ukraine’s civil war.
From the village, ringed by flat horizons, you can glimpse the pro-Russian rebel troops on the other side of the riverbank. And their snipers can see you. Ukrainian soldiers patrol the empty streets. Sandbags are piled on every window. The war that began in the Spring of 2014 is part of daily life.
If life for the 800,000 people on the frontline, the so-called Buffer Zone or Contact Line, is bleak, in the rebel held territories it’s unimaginable.
Migrants in Europe
Idomeni, Greece & Guevgueliya, Républic of Macedonia (2015)
Hundreds of migrants arriving in Greece boarded trains to cross the Republic of Macedonia to Serbia.
Migrants in Paris
Paris (2016)
The migrants who arrived in Paris set up makeshift camps and are frequently dislodged by the authorities.
Boxing? not even in dreams!
Gentilly, France (2013 to 2019)
Camerone, a young person with severe autism practices boxing to the surprise of his therapists, he is making significant progress. A photo essay following Camerone from the age of 7 to 13 years old.
