Jean-Michel Landon: La vie des blocs

Life in the outer urban zones around Paris, the banlieues, is his world. Born 1978 in Crétail, a part of the banlieues, Jean-Michel Landon moves between the different neighbourhoods. First as a teenager, then as a social worker, and today as a photographer. In the tradition of humanistic photography, his report "La vie des blocs" (The life of the blocks) narrates a story about the life of people in the shade of the residence towers. Unadorned and unfiltered, but always filled with respect and the empathy of an insider. His attention is directed especially at children and a lost youth that he potrays with a sensitive view and for whom he often turns in a "big brother" figure.

Jean-Michel Landon breaks the often negative stereotypes about life in the banlieues by showing their pluralism with his images. Next to the everyday despair and lack of perspective, there are moments full of lightheartedness, joie de vivre and solidarity. "La vie des blocs" is both an hommage and a photographic work of memory of a world whose real nature is often misconceived and whose architectural traces are subjected to a constant transformation due to governmental city reform projects. 

For more information on this exhibition, please visit https://www.rem-mannheim.de/ausstellungen/sonderausstellungen/jean-michel-landon-la-vie-des-blocs/

Credits: © Landon Jean-Michel