Project Detail: Snowed in

Contest:

LuganoPhotoDays 2015 Open



Brand:

LuganoPhotoDays



Author:

Maugeais laure

 

Project Info

Snowed in

Snowed-In: Frozen Nomads of the French Alps

For some it is the intended experience of having an adventure. For others perhaps it is their
Plan B, or C or D, after all the alternatives have failed. Regardless of how one comes to find
oneself living in a mobile home, cut-off by snow for the duration of the harsh winter, it is a
predicament which one usually does not intend to repeat. There are some however for
whom it is simply their choice of lifestyle, not a fall-back solution at all. They have given up
the material goals and comforts of our consumer focused world and have embraced life on
the road, traveling seasonally from one job to another one.
Independence such as this nevertheless comes with its own hefty challenges, surviving the
harsh winters is probably the greatest. The extreme cold of the Alps during winter freezes
pipes and the energy generating solar panels that normally power this lifestyle with such
efficiency struggle to provide enough heat or light even for these tiny homes.
It takes a special character to survive autonomously in the mountain during this part of the
year. In a handful of municipalities there are camping areas that may provide basic facilities
such as additional electricity, toilets and, when it is not frozen, a source of clean water. But
these services, managed by local city councils and centers of social action, cost money and
are, for the truly autonomous, an expensive luxury. Even if these seasonal travelers decide to
stay and pay the rent, they remain cut off for a few months, snowed-in, anchored in place,
their nomadic wanderings frozen for a time.

Chamonix Mont Blanc. Winter 2013 and 2014 -2 years project.
© Laure Maugeais –
french photographer – lauremaugeais.com – imagetemps.org
Laure focuses on meeting, intimacy, and works on the duration to testify of her present. She
thus promotes a author photography made in film technique. Since 2011, she works for Image
Temps, an organisation of visual education.

Photos