When the lens of photographer Arnaud Ghys reflects the day-to-day lives of disadvantaged people living in rural areas. It’s a silent testimony to the fact that housing is too expensive, too bad and too expensive.
Presented for the first time last October at the Théâtre de Namur as part of the Journée de Lutte contre la Pauvreté (Day for the Fight against Poverty), the exhibition by Arnaud Ghys is being showcased once again.
A home. A place from which to unfold one’s life and where to retreat when the world is hurting or when one simply wants to rest and recharge one’s batteries. An essential refuge. In the collective imagination, there are the ‘homeless’, the others, those on the streets. And then there are those who are sheltered in decent accommodation, which they rent or which they will finally own in ten or twenty years’ time. The reality is much less clear-cut.
Who can really say they are safe? Even within what we used to call the ‘middle class’, more and more people are dropping out, sliding into poverty, sometimes to the point of losing their homes. Their shelter. Their home.
The people I’ve met through the RWLP are facing up to these difficulties with impressive dignity and an acute sense of solidarity. It is this dignity and solidarity that I wanted to photograph.
‘I wanted to show what needed to be corrected. I wanted to show what needed to be appreciated’. Lewis Hine, American photographer whose work contributed in particular to the banning of child labour.
Le CCN / Centre culturel de Namur, Anciens Abattoirs de Bomel, Traverse des Muses, Namur, Belgique
