Rolando Quintas
• • • Documentary photography • • • 32 weeks program, 2020
Portfolio
Lost Gardens In Champigny-sur-Marne - near Paris, France - sheet metal huts and vegetable gardens, tolerated for decades, are on the verge of being dismantled, with no replacement solution for their occupants.
In the 1960s, many Portuguese people, fleeing the Salazar dictatorship and looking for work, arrived in Champigny-sur-Marne where a slum of more than 10,000 immigrants was settled. Dismantled in 1972, the slum notably gave way to a motorway project which never happened. Former inhabitants of the slum then appropriated the area dedicated to the project and created gardens and built sheet metal huts to live in. The place is now characterized by a set of private areas. Although maintained for decades, these lands do not legally belong to their occupants. Their presence has nevertheless been accepted so far.
The area is now part of a reconversion project for businesses and apartment buildings, taking advantage of the proximity to the future Champigny Centre station of the metro line 15 South of "Grand Paris". Already, between the gardens, we can see the traces of the soil study (core drilling) initiated in 2019. Today, the area is still occupied by Portuguese people, but also by other communities. Some of them are living there for years or decades; what rights do they have over their land? One of the first occupants, claims that the land now belongs to him ...
Her Pleasure They have fantasies of male plurality and / or submission. And sometimes they turn to an organizer who designs Ă la carte events. They decide: the moment, the physical appearance of the men, their number, the desired practices, the scenario.
Extracts from text messages or emails received by the organizer: « Je te contacte car j’aimerai réaliser un gros fantasme à l’occasion de mon anniversaire en compagnie de mon amant. Je ne sais pas si il sera réalisable mais le voilà. J’aimerais faire un petit gangbang [...] Je veux leur être totalement soumise en commençant doucement et montant crescendo [...] » « Elle aimerait plusieurs hommes et plusieurs couples pour une soirée « open bar » sans limites. Thème : noir et rouge, BDSM... » « J’aimerais également qu’ils soient masqués ou que je n’aie pas trop de possibilité de distinction du visage. L’inconnu m’excite…» « Je tenais à vous remercier pour ce moment d’1h30 durant lequel j’ai été au paradis, au centre de vos attentions, traitée comme une princesse. [...] Au risque de me répéter, c’était trop bon. »
BIO I am a Franco-Portuguese photographer based in Paris, France. My photographic approach aims to take a personal look at major social themes, a non obvious look which also shows my personal implication with the subject. In my first works, I was particularly interested in the history of Portuguese immigration (related to my parents history) by working on the last days of a slum threatened by the development of Greater Paris. I also worked on feminism by meeting women realizing fantasies of submission and male plurality. I have a double curriculum, between photography on the one hand and organizational and strategy consulting on the other. Rolando QUINTAS
Rolando Quintas 0033 (0)6 79 49 61 18 contact@rolandoquintas.com www.rolandoquintas.com www.instagram.com/rolando.quintas/