059 People Who Live Differently - ELISABETH BLANCHET talks about Documenting Through Photography

Travelling Through... London, the World and Life

ELISABETH BLANCHET documents the world through photography. She has travelled widely and her interest and patience in getting to know communities who live differently have resulted in her being able to capture peoples’ worlds beyond the ones in which we ourselves live. Elisabeth’s photography takes us to the Normandy beaches, the worlds of the Irish travellers and Romany, an orphanage in Romania from Ceaușescu’s era, and to the world of Britain’s post war prefab communities.

As well as photography, Elisabeth is a writer and a filmmaker. She is the author of several books one of which was in collaboration with Historic England on the social and architectural history of Britain's prefabs.

Lieberland is a place forgotten, but not to be forgotten. Situated on the Danube River in a disputed area between Serbia and Croatia, it became a place for libertarians to dream of another world with its President Vit Jedlička at the helm. Elisabeth spent some time documenting the early stages of Vit’s political adventure.

Elisabeth believes her role in documenting involves observing and making a link between the outside world and those worlds where people live differently.

“So people see that they live normally,

They eat, they love their children, or not, like everyone else.”

More recently, Elisabeth bought a camera in a flea market in Moscow. Inside the camera was an undeveloped film that she got developed. The black and white photos depicted a young boy’s first day at school. It was 1990 in the then USSR. The images inspired Elisabeth and set her on a mission to find this Russian boy and to return the photographs. The events that follow are currently influencing one of Elisabeth’s latest projects.

Finally, if you have a prefab or know someone who lives in one, do get in touch with Elisabeth she would love to hear from you – the details are below.

To know more about Elisabeth Blanchet go to: www.elisabethblanchet.com

Where you can BUY her BOOKS and PHOTOGRAPHY.

Instagram: @elisabethblanchet_photography

Facebook: @ElisabethBlanchetPhotography

Twitter: @BlanchetElisa

To find out about your podcast host EMMA go to https://www.travellingthrough.co.uk/

A big thanks to MARISKA Martina at https://www.mariskamartina.com/ for creating our wonderful podcast jingle!