Aubervilliers, France, June and December 2016, June 2018, photos Pascal Garret, fieldwork conducted with Bénédicte Florin
We first met Sidiki in 2016, in front of a company that buys scrap in Aubervilliers. Originally from Mali, he arrived illegally in France and still has no documents. Since 2014, he has been travelling long distances on foot every day, with his two-wheeler cart, in the northern suburbs of Paris. He collects all kinds of metal objects that he sells to scrap dealers. He gladly wears fluorescent clothing, like that worn by the cleaning agents, as this creates a certain level of confusion and allows him to work in the streets without attracting too much unwelcome attention from the police. We met him again in 2018, living in a garage that he has furnished entirely with recovered objects.
Pascal Garret et Bénédicte Florin