El Dorado
Melissa Arras
Overlapse
English
Softcover
64 pages
180 x 230 mm
2019
ISBN 9781999446826
Photographing in Calais over a period of two years, from November 2014 through December 2016, Melissa documented refugees and migrants arriving there with the ultimate aim of reaching the UK. Several different camps in the area have served as temporary homes for countless people escaping war, torture and persecution in their home countries. The crisis is ongoing, and at this location near the narrowest part of the English Channel (separating mainland Europe from Great Britain), around 300 to 600 migrants at a time are now present in makeshift encampments.
The camps are places of in-between, where lives are suspended and disrupted while people seek protections and await bureaucratic validation in order to continue, in a legal sense. Settlements are under constant threat of being destroyed by French authorities, and violent interactions with police have created an ongoing struggle in Calais.
In her work, Melissa challenges the perception of refugees and migrants with a view of intimate moments created after building trusting relationships – a response to a lack of awareness and intimacy that has fuelled negative stereotypes and racism.
(source: https://www.thelibraryproject.ie/collections/photobooks/products/el-dorado-melissa-arras)
About the Artist
Melissa Arras is a photographer based in London.
melissaarras.com
(source: https://www.booooooom.com/2020/07/02/el-dorado-by-photographer-melissa-arras/)
About the Publisher
Overlapse is an independent visual arts and photobooks imprint based in London UK, founded in 2015 by publisher Tiffany Jones. They primarily publish books focused on storytelling. Their subjects and stories address social, cultural, and environmental issues, with themes connected to human experience.
overlapse.com
(source: https://www.overlapse.com/about/)
