France: in search of freedom

Social workers often support people who have spent several years in detention. It is therefore important to consider the confinement they endured, in order to better understand the person in their future environment. How do you go back to a society that excluded you? Imprisonment has a certain hold on you that prevents you from thinking and seeing freely.

During our interviews, I suggested to them to look for someplace close by for supervised and timed walks - for a semblance of freedom in natural spaces.

This photograph is part of the À traversé project, which is a collection of pictures presenting the shared experiences of individuals under judicial control, and those of professionals under contract, travelling the same road together for a period of time. That is why the photography takes place when we meet. I introduce myself to them with the eye of a photographer. They get involved with the photography project and how their pictures will be taken. Photography is also part of rehabilitation when being released from prison, as it allows a person to exist through an image, in a way they can choose; they are free to reveal or evoke.

The electronic ankle bracelet is a strong symbol of a limited freedom that regulates how long a person can stay outside. I knew a female prisoner for two years, but only really met her on the day of the photo session. She wanted the photograph to remind her of the electronic bracelet, which would soon be removed from her ankle. She was the one who decided where to take the pictures: the forest of her childhood. The staging was worked out together, by both the model and the photographer,who agree on the purpose of the picture.

Anonymity is essential to this project. It allows for the right to be forgotten, to no longer be subjected to glares and exclusion from a society that only sees the electronic device, rather than a human foot. The struggle for freedom for people on the margins of society is futile if the system does not take their vulnerability and their journeys into account.