In the aftermath of the 2005 suburban riots that shook France, Simon Wheatley ventured to Blois, a small town on the edge of one of the country’s largest banlieues. There, amidst a landscape shaped by systemic marginalization and striking contrasts, he found a powerful story. A mere kilometre up the hill from the bourgeois town centre, with its buoyant tourist industry, sat France’s fourth biggest social housing project where almost half of Blois's population were lumped in a world far removed from the pretty postcard scenes and the famous château. Shot over the course of a year on a combination of 35mm and panoramic cameras, this work is a reflection of France’s institutionalised marginalisation of immigrant youth. Always and Forever There / Toujours et Encore Là, presented with bilingual texts, features a striking collection of images that were widely published but never fully realized in book form until now, finally bringing the photographer's to life in a way that finally does justice to the work.
