Crossing the Line

Magali Nougarede's intensely coloured studies of young and elderly people focus on the effect of the generation gap on the segregation of groups of people.

Made on the English South Coast and the French Côte d’Albâtre, this new body of work by photographer Magali Nougarède results from a series of interactions with members of the local communities, particularly focusing on the generation gap between teenagers and the elderly.

Building on her earlier work, Toeing the Line , commissioned by Photoworks, the exhibition consists of a series of intensely coloured studies of young and elderly people. By focusing on the minutiae of everyday dress, Nougarède harnesses the details of gesture and adornment to hint at contrasting worlds, seeking out what it is that distinguishes these increasingly segregated groups of people.

On the one hand, we encounter the last generation to have witnessed world war and to have fought for the frontiers which are implied by the project’s geographical focus. Their’s is a world of tweed and pastels, of aging hands and a dignified formality. By contrast, Nougarède’s emblematic teenagers exist in a space devoid of national territories. They are a bright and occasionally garish clan united by the Nike swoosh and other signifiers of global branding.

As a photographer located between these worlds, Nougarède demonstrates both a detachment from and affection for these contrasting conditions. She deploys a sensitive and subtle portraiture to offer a personal commentary on the shifting nature of our increasingly global culture.

A ffotogallery exhibition in association with Photoworks.