Sur-vival under (Romania, 1997)
 
I lived in Bucarest, Romania for one year and a half. I joined an association called Parada which helps the street children to have a meal; to have a sleep, and much more than that…Parada gives them dignity. These children (around 2000) had run away from orphanage, from violent and alcoholic parents. Facing poorness, some just choose the “freedom” of the streets. They live in little groups of 5 up to 10. They have between 9 to 22 years old. They get together as “clans”. It is teenager’s time and love strories happen a lot. They earn their living by stealing, burglaring for some of them, prostitution, begging for money, little work and humanitarian help….They organize their survival in the canals where pipe lines of hot water are running underneath the streets of Bucarest. To get there they have to go down a thin iron stepladder. There, they hide, love, fight, pray or dream of a better life.
It is there in this wet and warm atmosphere of the canals that they sleep on an amount of old cardboxes and old dirty clothes, or on a kind of bed made out of wooden shalf and iron wire; Some pairs of shoes are all well arranged along the bed, and there is even a broom in a corner.The illusion of a home…
 
Special Prize of the Scoop and photojournalism festival of Angers, 1999
Great prize of the festival of Biarritz Terre d’Images, 2001