Gypsies

With Gypsies, photographer Patrick Cariou and writer and filmmaker?Guy-Laurent Winterstein retrace the migration of the?Rom people (the Gypsies’ own term for themselves) from?northern to southern Europe, the Middle East, and ultimately?to India, the home of their ancestors. The original journey?was an epic, thousand-year odyssey and Cariou and Winterstein?have labored more than a decade to retrace it.

Cariou, a self taught anthropologist and a professional and?award-winning documentary, portrait, and fine art photographer?harbors a lifelong, passionate fascination with outlaws?and renegades and an equal ability to earn their trust and?respect. In 1997, Cariou’s first monograph, Surfers featured?the thousand-yard stares of renowned and revered athletes?who had famously chosen the sea over land, movement over?stasis; in 2000 he produced Yes Rasta, after vanishing into?the Jamaican forests in pursuit of the last members of the?true and hidden cult of Rastafarianism; and now, in 2010,?with Gypsies, Cariou comes to the end of his travels spent?documenting a sparse landscape of itinerant clans living in a?world apart for hundreds of years.

Himself a gadje (non-Gypsie), photographer Cariou relied on?writer and filmaker Winterstein as his point of access. A Manouche?Gypsy born in France, Winterstein’s family connections?enabled the expedition to begin, and his fluency in the Gypsy?tongue facilitated it as the pair headed east. The result is?a stunning and thought-provoking collection of portraits and?landscapes that demonstrate the wide variety of conditions in?which the Gypsies of the world find themselves, from citizen?to gangster, from the flashy prosperity of the Mercedesdriving?Manouches of France to the abject poverty of the?Kalderash of Slovakia.

Incredibly, Cariou’s images reveal the diversity of ethnic types?to be found in this global tribe; from the dark-eyed, ringlet?haired stereotypical “Gypsy types” in Northern Europe, who?seem to display clearly their Indian heritage, to blond, blue-eyed?children in Afghanistan, much nearer to the source of?origin, who nonetheless have distinctly Caucasian features.?These people, scattered far and wide, are a family, bound?together by centuries of history and generations of survival.

Patrick Cariou is an acclaimed photographer whose work?synthesizes documentary and fine art image making. His?photography has been collected in three monographs,?Surfers (powerHouse Books, 1997), Yes Rasta (powerHouse?Books, 2000), and Trench town Love (779, Editions, 2003).

Guy-Laurent Winterstein was born in France and has?Manouche Gypsy roots. He is a writer and filmmaker.?Winterstein is the director of the film Romanistan (2007).