Catalogue > At random

In California, around 172,000 people are homeless, 30% of the country's total, even though the state represents only 12% of the US population. Lack of affordable housing, mental health problems and drug use are the main causes of this social crisis. This human distress is everywhere these days, but it's far from trivial. Homeless people are affected by heatwaves and floods, which can be deadly due to lack of access to shelter, clean water, and healthcare. I met homeless individuals when I was in the town of El Centro; I captured a few moments of their daily lives on the edge of Interstate 8 and the Sonoran Desert.

Isabelle Hayeur is known for her photographs and her experimental videos. Her work is situated within a critical approach to the environment, urban development and to social conditions. Since the late 1990s, she has been probing the territories she goes through to understand how our contemporary civilizations take over and fashion their environments. She is concerned about the evolution of places and communities in the neoliberal sociopolitical context we currently live in. Her works have been shown at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and at Les Rencontres internationales de la photographie à Arles, amongst others. She has also actively participated in international artists’ residencies and festivals.