About Elisabeth Blanchet

I have always been interested in and curious about people who live differently from us – the so-called “settled community”. My camera is like a passport to meet them, spend some time with them and hear their stories. "Communities" is one of the recurrent themes in my work: I have photographed Gypsies and Travellers, people who live in prefabs, push bike messengers, chaps and chapettes...

Based in London, I have been a freelance photographer for the last 10 years. I regularly work with Time Out London and other UK papers and magazines. I also contribute to the French, Belgian, Scandinavian and American press (Le Figaro, Le Soir, l'Agefi, Cote Ouest, Marie-Claire, Groupe Bayard-Presse, Frommer's...).

My work is regularly exhibited, especially the photo essay "Ceausescu's Orphans, 20 years on" and my archive on Gypsies and Irish Travellers in the UK. Another recurrent theme in my work is nostalgia: I have always been fascinated by old pictures, by the memory they manage to fix, freeze in time, then suddlenly bring back to their viewers. They can be very emotional little things. Beyond the stills, images revive chapters of our lifes. All my work on seaside holidays and childhood memories is about nostalgia and its resulting emotions.