Editorial: Documentary (PROFESSIONAL) - HONORABLE MENTION
Memories of the Polygone Gypsies

Photo © Jeannette Gregori
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When 170 families of Manushes, Gypsies and Yenishes decided to settle down on a field adjoining the airfield in the 1970’s, the Polygone district in Strasbourg took on a new identity. In 2000, the public administration judged the neighborhood unsafe and substandard and made the decision to raze it to the ground and build 150 new dwellings. In August 2016, the oldest houses of the Polygone were destroyed.This process of re-housing the Travelers of Strasbourg is exemplified as one of the most ambitious and innovative in France and testifies of an interest for this neglected district but it also shakes secular customs and the poetry emanating from this community: outdoor life, the instinct of travel, family celebrations around a barbecue, respect for the elders who always have their place among their lineage...In 2009, I had already met some families of the Polygone district as I captured my first two series of photographs "Gypsy Childhoods" and "The new Roma". Back on the settlement, seven years later, to find the same children who had become young adolescents, and all these Manush families, who were among the first to have trampled the Polygone soil, allowed me to share with them intense emotions and collect their reactions on the spot. As I photographed them during the six months prior to the destruction of their housing, it seemed important to me to express their feelings of oppression, loss, despair and anger which permeated this meaningful period at the hinge between the old and the new world.Living in a conventional house, payind a rent, not being able to travel any longer will be a new way of life Gypsies will find difficult to integrate.
She was also awarded the first place at the ND AWARDS 2017 in people/children category and the 3rd place in ediitorial/documentary category.
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When 170 families of Manushes, Gypsies and Yenishes decided to settle down on a field adjoining the airfield in the 1970’s, the Polygone district in Strasbourg took on a new identity. In 2000, the public administration judged the neighborhood unsafe and substandard and made the decision to raze it to the ground and build 150 new dwellings. In August 2016, the oldest houses of the Polygone were destroyed.This process of re-housing the Travelers of Strasbourg is exemplified as one of the most ambitious and innovative in France and testifies of an interest for this neglected district but it also shakes secular customs and the poetry emanating from this community: outdoor life, the instinct of travel, family celebrations around a barbecue, respect for the elders who always have their place among their lineage...In 2009, I had already met some families of the Polygone district as I captured my first two series of photographs "Gypsy Childhoods" and "The new Roma". Back on the settlement, seven years later, to find the same children who had become young adolescents, and all these Manush families, who were among the first to have trampled the Polygone soil, allowed me to share with them intense emotions and collect their reactions on the spot. As I photographed them during the six months prior to the destruction of their housing, it seemed important to me to express their feelings of oppression, loss, despair and anger which permeated this meaningful period at the hinge between the old and the new world.Living in a conventional house, payind a rent, not being able to travel any longer will be a new way of life Gypsies will find difficult to integrate.
About author:
Jeannette Gregori was born in 1967, she lives in Strasbourg, France. She studied photography at the Fine Arts University, Indiana, US, as well as at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg. Her first series "Enfances Tsiganes" aims to develop tolerance towards the Roma and Sinti community. Her work was exhibited at the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty in Médiathèque André Malraux in Strasbourg and at the Council of Europe in 2009. As her photographic works develop, her social commitment has diversified on settlements in France, Poland and Czech Republic. In 2014 and 2015, she cooperated with UFAT (Union of French Gypsy associations) for the recognition of the Gypsy genocide. She took part in several Roma workshops in Poland and presented her work on "The New Roma" at the International Month of Photography in Berlin. She is now represented by the art gallery Kai Dikhas in Berlin which filed her work at RomArchive (the digital archive of the Roma). She was awarded the first place at the Monovisions Photography Awards, black and white photo of the year 2017 in photojournalism.She was also awarded the first place at the ND AWARDS 2017 in people/children category and the 3rd place in ediitorial/documentary category.
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