Dolls statment
Dolls, is a documentary photography project which proposes a reflection on the concept of identity and freedom of young gypsy girls of the suburb of La Cité of Perpignan (France), a district exclusively gypsy considered one of the poorest in the city.
Intended as a visual testimony of the young gypsy females of this community, the project shows the preliminary steps to adulthood for these girls with a desire to express the wildest side of their existence, in contrast with restrictions that they will have to live with once they lose their virginity and become women.
“Poupées” works as a metaphor associated with the Gypsy patriarchal system. On one hand, the title alludes to the innocence and purity characterizing the universe of female children, in a society where honour and virginity are first on the podium of values. On the other hand, it refers to the concept of objectified woman through the early hyper sexualisation of these girls. Adolescence comes to an end after "the handkerchief test” where the girl’s virginity and honesty will be proved by the ajuntaora. From that moment on, she will be her husband’s and his relatives’ property.
Losing one’s virginity is a rite of passage that will put an end to a small world of spontaneity and independence, the threshold of a reality steeped with submission and servility.