kho
Photographs and texts / Romain Laurendeau
Editorial coordination and
Graphic design / éditions[NO]
Texts French/English
Editorial coordination and
Graphic design / éditions[NO]
Texts French/English
ISBN : 978-2-9577485-0-1
Cover on Materica Kraft 360 g
with Swiss-style binding and flaps
Width (cm): 22
Height (cm): 27
Number of pages: 208
Publication date: September 2021
Print run: 800 copies
Printed in France by Escourbiac
with Swiss-style binding and flaps
Width (cm): 22
Height (cm): 27
Number of pages: 208
Publication date: September 2021
Print run: 800 copies
Printed in France by Escourbiac
Kho is an immersion in the heart of the working class neighbourhoods of Algiers, meeting a youth who, one day in February 2019, broke the wall of fear by taking to the streets, giving rise to the largest demonstrations Algeria has seen in decades.
When Romain Laurendeau discovered Algiers in 2014, Bouteflika had just been elected president of Algeria for the fourth time, a country with a very heavy past that has been little documented since the "black decade", the civil war of the 1990s. The photographer was immediately caught up in the general stagnation. On every street corner, a huge youth seemed to be wandering aimlessly, in a void... The regime expected nothing but calm and resignation from them.
So he decided to tell the story of these young people who were of no interest to anyone.
Romain Laurendeau followed their wanderings and photographed daily life in its simplicity. Suspended moments that only underline a singular and disturbing situation. The boredom and frustration of the street. The protesting rage of the stadiums. Moments of ephemeral freedom in discrete places, hidden from society...
He lived with these young people for more than 5 years, as if inhabited by this story which, for him, went beyond the simple documentary.
In these neighbourhoods, something fundamental and universal was at play, something that had to do with human tragedy.
How does man face the dogmas that eat away at him?
How does he live when he is deprived of dreams?
Kho shows and questions the genesis of a revolt.
Romain Laurendeau
After a photography training, Romain has contracted a Keratoconus, a disease which gradually distorted his corneas. During these years of illness, he explored intimacy, through introspective series fed by his doubts. In 2009, a corneal transplant saved his sight. It's a new birth. Since then, he has travelled extensively to document the human condition in all its social, economic and political aspects.
In a perpetual questioning on the human being and the world, he naturally develops an immersion approach by sharing his subjects daily life for months. First in Senegal, but especially in Algeria, he is directly confronted with the suffering of a population subjected to issues that go far beyond its control. In his quest for universality, absurdity and the consequences of dogmas became his favourite subjects. For more than 5 years, he followed the working class districts Youth in Algiers, telling the story of boredom, frustration and lack of dreams of these young people who consider themselves as a lost generation. A work which finally documents the underlying reasons for the revolt that Algeria is facing today.
In a perpetual questioning on the human being and the world, he naturally develops an immersion approach by sharing his subjects daily life for months. First in Senegal, but especially in Algeria, he is directly confronted with the suffering of a population subjected to issues that go far beyond its control. In his quest for universality, absurdity and the consequences of dogmas became his favourite subjects. For more than 5 years, he followed the working class districts Youth in Algiers, telling the story of boredom, frustration and lack of dreams of these young people who consider themselves as a lost generation. A work which finally documents the underlying reasons for the revolt that Algeria is facing today.
Awards
received for the photos of the book :
