To begin with, photography was a research tool for Yto Barrada. It was in 1998 that she showed an exclusively photographic project on the military barricades in the West Bank at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris. The following year she embarked on The Strait Project which brought her international recognition, and which she kept going until 2008.
Her photographs depict commonplace subjects: a shrimp factory shed filled with female workers dressed in white; people seen from [...]
To begin with, photography was a research tool for Yto Barrada. It was in 1998 that she showed an exclusively photographic project on the military barricades in the West Bank at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris. The following year she embarked on The Strait Project which brought her international recognition, and which she kept going until 2008.
Her photographs depict commonplace subjects: a shrimp factory shed filled with female workers dressed in white; people seen from behind, as when they are peering at the opposite bank or shore; waste ground; popular imagery. The same is true of the titles that refer to the topography and streets of Tangiers and are not devoid of meaning, like for example RUE DE LA LIBERTÉ for two men hugging one another, or LE DETROIT (avenue d’Espagne) for a boy crossing a street, viewed from above, and carrying a model of a large sailing-ship in his arms.