Paris Ringroad

Thirty years ago French town-planners built a road on the outskirts of the city of Paris. This road called the « Périphérique » is thirty six kilometres long. It follows the outlying of Paris and was conceived to prevent future traffic jam.

Today the Périphérique is a real success and is the most European frequented road with an average of a million cars a day.

Three decades later, urban evolutions and expansions changed the landscape and the people who live around the road. Today, the Périphérique became much more than just a road. It is a real physical and social frontier between Paris and the immediate suburb where low income population is overwhelmingly represented. The closer you live from the Peripherique the lower the rents are. In addition to the low income population surrounding the highway, in some section, the space below the road is now also a refuge for homeless people from all over the world. What was at the beginning a temporary settling, due to the high deficit of affordable homes available for a population often below the poverty line, turned out to be their permanent home. A recent survey from December 2007*, shows that the life expectation of people living in this area is two or three years shorter than the average.

The area of the peripherique is today a no man’s land where poor people and their family work hard to try to make end meets surrounded by the sounds of endless cars.

I started photographing these people in 2002 and since, every year, their number is growing!