Hervé Lequeux, winner of the 2021 Award « Association Lucas Dolega

Hervé Lequeux, winner of the 2021 Award

The jury of this tenth edition has awarded French photojournalist Hervé Lequeux for his work “The Children of the Goutte d’Or”, on unaccompanied minors in the north of Paris.

The story

The Children of the Goutte d’Or

In front of the laundromat Jessaint, masked residents hurry up. Focused on their steps, they slalom between the legs spread out on the sidewalk. Sitting on a couch made of cardboard boxes, five scruffy teens stare in the void in front of them, passing each other joints. They’re nicknamed Tanjawi, Casawi, Fasi and chuckle a bit when asked how old they are. “17 in Morocco, 15 in France”, jokes one of them, in a shaky French.
In winter, when the cold is biting, they take their quarters inside the drying machines of the laundromats. Their kingdom spreads between Barbès and La Goutte d’Or in northern Paris, where they meet other teens in the same situation. It’s a kind of messy family, where the strongest and the smartest rules. This group, counting several dozens of minors, is made and unmade, its fluctuations depending on arrivals and departures, incarcerations or placements in youth homes. They’re never the same but still form a pack. Sometimes as young as 9 years old (the oldest are about 20), these young Moroccans and their girlfriends, without family ties, poly-drug users and homeless, have bewildered the neighbourhood’s daily life.

The Goutte d'Or neibourhood, Paris. December, 12th, 2020.  Hanna is a 13-year-old French-Moroccan girl who is breaking up with her family. subject to a search form by the specialised services. 

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. November, 13th, 2020. The moroccan unaccompanied Minors meet almost daily, in the neighbourhood to talk, play, smoke and eat until late at night.

The Goutte d'Or neibourhood, Paris. December, 12th, 2020. Hanna regularly takes medicines (Lyrica, Rivotril...) for recreational purposes in order to forgether problems. 

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. November, 3rd, 2020. The moroccan unaccompanied minors spend their evening in the neighborhood, where they meet to see each other, smoke, and play. Some nights, they seem more tired, if they did not find a place to sleep the night before. 

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. December, 11 th, 2020. After a violent street fight where Younes got a glass bottle in the front, his friends gave him first aid. He got 5 stitches. 

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. November, 27th, 2020, At the foot of the Goutte d Or library, young unaccompanied minors meet at the beginning of their evening to eat or to do street business.

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. December, 12th, 2020.  After a sleepless night, for lack of a place, Hanna gives herself a moment of respite in front of a shop in the neighborhood.  

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. November, 12th, 2020. Achraf is a 17 years old Unaccompanied minor, originally from Tangier, Morocco. When he was 8 years old, he left Morocco : from Ceuta, he spent 2 years in a reception center in Barcelona where he got a diploma in electro mecanic. At the age of 15, he decided to come to France. He went in search of his twin brother in Germany, Denmark, Sweden... Achraf was sentenced to 18 months in prison. 

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. November 6th, 2020. The moroccan unaccompanied minors spend their evening in the neighborhood, where they meet to see each other, smoke, and play. Some nights, they seem more tired, if they did not find a place to sleep the night before. 

Gare de Lyon, Paris. January, 20th 2021.  Celia warms up in a blanket, she is with young unaccompanied minors installed in a makeshift camp, tunnel Van Gogh under the Gare de Lyon for several weeks, under unsanitary conditions. 

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. November 13th, 2020. The moroccan unaccompanied minors meet almost daily, in the neighborhood to talk, play, smoke and eat until late at night. Sometimes silence sets in and boredom sets in their minds. 

The Goutte d Or neighbourhood, Paris. December, 12th, 2020.  The laundromat of the Goutte d Or, where the young meet daily to warm up and rest to the great displeasure of the owner who regularly activates the alarm to make them flee. 

The Goutte d'Or neibourhood, Paris. December, 11th, 2020.  Farah is a young unaccompanied minor. She is without family background and very fragile. She calms her anxieties by taking various medicines that she buys in the neighborhood. On this day of great despair she scarifies her arms and face.  

The Goutte d'Or neibourhood, Paris. December, 14th, 2020.  Farah is a young unaccompanied minor. She is without family background and very fragile. She calms her anxieties by taking various medicines that she buys in the neighborhood. On this day of great despair she scarifies her arms and face.  

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. November, 5th, 2020. In the group of moroccan unaccompanied minors, fights are frequent. They often use medications for recreational purposes (Lyrica, Rivotril.. called Hamra and Saroukh) which they mix with alcohol, which makes them very susceptible and aggressive.

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. December 12th, 2020.  Mohamed, a moroccan unaccompanied minor sleeps in the laundromat to warm up. At the age of 13 he left Casablanca and his family hiding under the engine of a bus. He thus returned to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, then one day managed to climb in a boat. After two years in Spain, he went to Paris. 

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris.  November, 13th, 2020. Ines stays In the laundromat of the neighbourhood with her Moroccan friends to escape the cold.  

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. November, 11, 2020. Police controls are an almost daily routine the young unaccompanied minors of the quarter.  

The Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, Paris. December, 12th, 2020. Ines in the arms of L, freshly out of prison. They have fun to get rid of the boredom and repetition of their dailylife in the neighborhood. 

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Biographie

Hervé Lequeux is documentary photographer based in Paris. In 2011, he documented the revolutions of the “Arab Spring”.
Since 2017, he works on deprived neighbourhoods around the Mediteranean. In 2020, he went back to the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois to document Covid 19 and its consequences.
Since September 2020, he has been working on the situation of unaccompanied minors in the Goutte d’Or neighbourhood in Paris, a project he wants to pursue in other French cities, as well as in Europe.