In 2009, I was given carte blanche by the Diaphane Center for Photography on the project “Destinations Europe”. I chose Glasgow and have returned each year since to cities in northern England and Scotland. I explore the cities, which endured the end of the industrial age, and served as backdrops for the big social movements of the 80s, in a not-quite documentary style. The idea of documenting a place and era elliptically, of telling stories, appeals to me. As a recipient of the Institut français’ 2015 Hors les Murs program, I completed this project with a long stay in the United Kingdom. I particularly appreciate moments when everything appears to be staged, as on a film set. In the words of Jean-Luc Godard, we must “try to find where the story begins in the motion of the crowd.”
Géraldine Lay