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”ALTHOUGH I OFTEN HEAR ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE ”DIFFERENT”, PERSONALLY, I STILL HAVEN’T UNDERSTOOD WHAT THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DIFFERENT FROM…?”

With this photography display, the Musée de l’Homme questions one of the topical social phenomenons: the one of welcoming and integration of immigrants. In order to create this series of about 30 images, the photographer met dozens of people who fled the war. However, these are portraits of serene and smiling people. ”They are cheerful. They are fighters! I wanted to show that refugees are first of all citizens incredibly full of emotions and life.” says Clarisse Rebotier. When creating this series, the photographer wanted to set up a participatory project: the subjects became authors as they developed their portraits on their own in the darkroom.

Taken at the Trocadero Esplanade of Human Rights, in the shadow of the Musée de l’Homme attached to the humanist and universalist values which are at the origin of its creation in 1937, these photographs become a plea for solidarity.

Even if welcoming the diversity and the integration of the refugees are now a challenge for Europe and for France, they also mobilize the humanist and universalist principles dear to the Musée de l’Homme. These photographs are a plea for solidarity where the prejudices about immigrants are gradually being deconstructed.