"As soon as I knew that the construction site of the Stade de France was going to upset the neighbourhood, I wanted to go and see what was at the foot of this site and meet the people who live there. I did not want to do a report and reveal living conditions. Making portraits of unknowns is taking them out of their group anonymity and their belonging to the banlieue and giving them back a civic dignity. The idea imposed itself on me of bearing witness to the life of an era, of a place, and of accompanying photographically the transformations of an upset neighbourhood. The 'Visage' is the link between my personal approach in these family portraits and the pictures made by the children of the neighbourhood. I wanted to propose to the children to be 'photographic' witnesses: to observe their neighbourhood while it changes, to discover what they see every day without really looking at it any more." Anna Rouker