Bastien Deschamps

22/09/2024

Maroni 6/6
2022

12/01/2023

Ecdemomania #028
Bangkok, 20175
Part of the Ecdemo prinst collection, a series of mated
prints available for purchase on my new online store :
bastiendeschamps.com

07/01/2023

Ecdemomania #001
Seoul, 2015

Part of the Ecdemo print collection, a series of mated prints available for purchase on my new online store : https://shop.bastiendeschamps.com

17/12/2022

A Turkish soldier patrolling in front of a watchtower along the Evros River, a few hundred meters from a trafficker's cottage. December 15, 2020

16/12/2022

Testimonies from the Evros River.
Amine 17/11/2020 :

"It was an accumulation of reasons that pushed me to try my luck at the border. Primarily economic, and the fact that I didn’t think that this kind of violent and humiliating behavior towards refugees existed. All I wanted was to make things better for myself and help my family financially.

It was hard. I was hit many times. Sometimes I could barely stand up. I have seen death several times over the border, and I thank God that I am still alive. I have no choice but to continue even though I know I might die trying."

15/12/2022

A shoe sole found in the Evros Delta near Alexandroúpolis, Greece. June 8, 2021

From the series Evros.

15/12/2022

The Almeria Hotel in Edirne, Turkey. It was used as a resting place between two attempts to cross the border.

14/12/2022

Testimonies from the Evros River.

Youssef 22/11/2020 :

"[...] After only a few kilometers, the army stopped us. They stole our phones, our money, and everything we were carrying that they thought could be useful. After that, they took us to some kind of police station to hand us over to the police. We were locked up there for almost a day with nothing to eat, drink or keep warm; it was freezing. When the night came, we saw hooded men dressed in black arrive. They forced us into a huge truck.

Each time one of us climbed into the vehicle, one of the soldiers hit him with a baton. We were nearly a hundred people crammed into a vast windowless container. We spent the whole trip having difficulty breathing. Once we arrived at the river, they made us get off by hitting us again with their baton.

They forced us to get on small rubber dinghies driven by two Syrians. When we arrived in the middle of the river, these two Syrians threw us into the water, and we had to get to the other side by our own means. As we progressed, we came to a sort of shoreline that turned out to be a small island in the middle of the river. There, we found a large group of migrants. There were Syrians, Pakistanis, Moroccans, and Algerians. Some of them had been there for days without any food. You could see the immense fatigue, hunger, and cold on their faces and bodies.

We could see that the other side was swarming with Turkish soldiers to prevent us from passing. [...]"

13/12/2022

Kristos and Sakis repairing a net.

They are part of the dozen of fishermen who live in the Evros Delta (Greece), in wooden houses directly on the river, a few hundred meters from Turkey. They act as informal border guards in the delta, informing the authorities of what they see. But they have also repeatedly helped migrants in need, especially to stay warm during winter. They found several lifeless bodies over the years.

June 11, 2021

12/12/2022

"The Jungle", as migrants call this mountainous region covered with forest
of northern Greece, has taken an almost mythical dimension among those who must cross it.
Once the border crossed, it is a two to three weeks journey by foot to reach the city of Thessaloniki, the first stop in Europe, for those who can't afford the services of a smuggler. .

From the series "Evros", first chapter of Where the Border Runs: Tales from the River Sides.

20/02/2021

Thrilled to do an Instagram Takeover with Fototreff Berlin. I'll present there 4 different projects during a week.
Be sure to have a look at the Instagram account of and to follow them to discover some good stuff every week. 🤩

Thanks to Robert Rausch for the opportunity. 🙏

This week photographer Bastien Deschamps (Bastien Deschamps) will take over the Instagram channel with a hand-picked selection of pictures from four projects. Watch out!

The photographer:

Bastien Deschamps is a wandering photographer born in Paris in 1990. He graduated from the “Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism” program at the International Center of Photography (ICP - International Center of Photography) New York in 2019. His work has been exhibited in Paris, New York, and Bogota.

His latest endeavor, “Evros”, named after the river that separates Greece from Turkey, is chapter one of his ongoing geopoetic research “Where the river runs”, exploring migrant life along border rivers.

You can learn more about and support "Evros" on kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bastiend/where-the-border-runs-chapter-i-evros. Only untill February 24.
Link as well in Bastien’s channel (Bastien Deschamps).

Photo: Untitled – New York City, from “Ecdemomania”, by Bastien Deschamps (Bastien Deschamps)

https://www.instagram.com/fototreffberlin/