PODCAST: Lucas Dolega 2021 Award: Hervé Lequeux

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Born in Sète in 1972, Hervé Lequeux describes himself as a documentary photographer. He has been working for many years on youth in working-class neighborhoods in France and elsewhere.

In 2011, he documented the "Arab" revolutions (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya) and continues to explore their causes and consequences.He is a photographer of the long term, as evidenced by his work on immigration in France, which was shown at the VISA pour l'Image Festival ("Le ministère", 2010 and "Une jeunesse française", 2012), as well as the "Parole de photographes" photography competition, which showcased his documentary on the journey of young Afghans from Calais to Birmingham ("Exil afghan", 2009).

In 2012, he was awarded a grant from the C.N.A.P. to develop his project "Une Jeunesse française" (French Youth) on young people living in working-class neighborhoods in France. The result is a 175-page book with 175 photos, published in 2017 by André Frère éditions, and numerous articles in various magazines. From the northern neighborhoods of Amiens to the northern districts of Marseille, this account contributes to a history of the present time, as its publisher points out. Since 2017, he has been working on underprivileged neighborhoods around the Mediterranean: from the Lebanese coast (Beirut-Chatila) to the Algerian coast (La Casbah d'Alger, Oran-Sidi El Houari), via Tunisia and Morocco.

In 2020, he documented Covid 19 by returning to the Chêne Pointu district of Clichy-sous-Bois in Seine-Saint-Denis to observe the consequences of the health crisis on its population. His work was included in the group exhibition "Pandemic" at the Visa pour L'image festival.

Finally, since September 2020, he has been focusing on the situation of unaccompanied minors in Paris's Goutte d'Or district, a project he intends to pursue in other French cities as well as in Europe.

He is the recent winner of the 10th Prix Lucas Dolega for his report on the "lost children of the Goutte d'Or" in Paris.

The partners of the Lucas Dolega Award are : City of Paris, SAIF, RSF, Label Image laboratory and Union des Photographes Professionnels.