US / THEM by Vera Schoepe (July 27, 2010) 
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Introduction by Marta Daho
Vera Schoepe uses Photography among other types of media to articulate a message very much rooted in her experience. US / Them here selected is the result of the time she spent in two cities of the borderland region between Mexico and the USA. The final installation project includes not only photography but also sound, documents, and text, mostly testimonies of people including immigrants and social activists that palliate the social wearing out on both sides of the border. In Schoepe’s work, photography used to plays an ambiguous role that prevents the viewer from recognizing the territory he sees. Quite the opposite, this series of images creates a sort of mirage. Images of one city then keep sending you back to images of the other side. In her constant walk across this border, Vera Schoepe shows to what extent the cities of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso are two sides of the same coin. Her work leaves us without any bearings. The viewer can find himself lost and confused, incapable of knowing on which side of the border he is looking. In the end, what the artist point at is that the possibility of understanding of the whole situation comes not so much from a portrait or a landscape but from the oral history behind the place: the voices of the residents of this region who live in between, in the gap created by the border.
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Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
US / THEM – Between Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, USA
Born to a family of mixed origins, Vera Schoepe is naturally inclined to use Photography and other Art media to question and document border identities.
This series of images accompanied by text is part of a larger installation called Je suis la frontière (I am the border) which encompasses a growing archive of audio and visual documents that explore the complexity of living in the US – Mexico borderland. The whole archive constitutes a personal cartography of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, two cities that are at the same contiguous but divided by four international bridges.
Last year, this project served as a backdrop to a series of creative writing workshops organized for youths living in local transition homes in Marseille. This event eventually led to the creation of a series of portraits at the Foyer de la Gare de Saint Charles called « Sans Repères » (Without bearings).
In her work, Vera seeks to challenge the limited and biased information that the media gives us about certain places in the world. She believes in approaching those places by listening to individuals, following their steps, and walking on the streets. She thus hopes to create a personal cartography of a place and to give presence to the voices and life stories behind the sometimes overwhelming statistics.
Vera Schoepe (1979) lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.
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