A series of images of workers that have been photographed at sites of production or consumption, all taken in a city that, like other places, is coming back to life despite the decomposition of one of its social classes to the point where it is no longer functional. The images negate the identities of the protagonists to decontextualize the gestures, they concentrate on the bodies, exaggerating the positions and placing an emphasis on the obscene illusion of social kinship. The working class in the West has fought for the end of exploitation, the abolition of wage labor. Yet instead of freeing bodies and minds, automation has given birth to a smooth and painless nightmare that workers can only defy with their obsolete nostalgia for their own identity. The contorted economy meddles in every aspect of their existence, imprisoning them in the perverse role of docile consumers and awed spectators. Overtaken by history, they are impotent as they watch their own demise at the hands of a triumphant capitalism.
End Of Work - Libération, August 2005 |
| Street children, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2006 |
| Brothels, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2006 |
| Backs of abused children; Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2006 |
| Khmer hostesses, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2006 |
| Fin du Travail, Saint-Étienne, France, 2005 |
