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Marla and Darren Sumner’s house, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2011 © Joakim Eskildsen, Courtesy Galerie Taik and Polka Galerie

JOAKIM ESKILDSEN: AMERICAN REALITIES

Exhibition from Apr 20 to May 21, 2016 at Galerie Polka, Paris Fair Exhibitor

12, rue Saint-Gilles, Cour de Venise, 75003 Paris
[email protected]
T +33 (0)1 76 21 41 30
www.polkagalerie.com

Galerie Polka presents American Realities by Danish photographer Joakim Eskildsen (born in 1971 in Copenhagen).

“One in every six Americans lived below the official U.S. poverty line when Kira Pollack, Director of Photography at TIME Magazine, commissioned me to capture the growing crisis. During thirty-six days spread over seven months in 2011, and mostly accompanied by reporter Natasha del Toro, I traveled through New York, California, Louisiana, South Dakota and Georgia, visiting places that according to census data have the highest poverty rate.

The approximately 50 million poor Americans are a heterogeneous population from very varying backgrounds. Some are newly poor, some are immigrants who have come from humble conditions, dreaming of the American possibilities. Of course, U.S. poverty differs from poverty in developing countries. People living below the poverty line can have physical goods, even work but they are mired in debt, many homes are in foreclosure, and most often, being poor also implies having to resort to the cheapest, most unhealthy and risky lifestyle. Any unexpected occurrence may jeopardize the fragile system and find people living on the streets.

(…) The myth of the American Dream is very strong in the U.S., and it seems people are disillusioned with the fact that it is so difficult to get by today. They said there is no American Dream anymore. This, they said, was the American Reality.”