Philippe Dudouit: The Dynamics of Dust, New Discovery Award, Rencontres Arles, Arles, France
Philippe Dudouit’s work is founded on in depth historic, geopolitical and cartographic documentation, research and analysis, making the presented project a long term photographic study on the socio-political evolution of the Sahelo-Saharian zone since 2008.
Dudouit documents the new relationships that historically nomadic autochthonous Saharan inhabitants of the Sahelo–Saharan band have forged with a territory they cannot pass through freely, or safely, anymore. Being a former tourist paradise now off-limits to foreigners, due to a burgeoning abduction industry, made the former dire economic situation even worse, cutting off large parts of the population from an income essential to them.
At first glance, the rise of Islamic terrorism in this area is to blame, but a closer look reveals a reality that is much more complex and the area now faces a dangerous cocktail of underdevelopment, poverty and state failure. The new constellation consists of armed islamists, human traffickers, drugs and weapons smugglers, topped off by international interests jockeying to win oil, gold and uranium mining rights. The lack of political vision for the area’s future make up for a scenario in which a doomed generation is growing up.
Dudouit’s work embodies hybridity, in the fusion of classic analogue large format camera technique and the usage of digital technologies, but also in the combination an innovative documentary photographic sensibility with the tableau-type composition of his environmental portraits.