I live in Switzerland, a country where right-wing populists are the foremost political force in the government. I remember how angry I was the night I spent hours removing nauseating flyers they’d left on the windshields of cars all over my neighborhood in Geneva. That was back in 2013.
Not long after that nocturnal episode, I began taking photographs on the outskirts of Geneva, where the populists were garnering more and more support. Photography became my release, a response to my dread of what I felt was an attempt to take the people and their minds hostage. That’s how the “Citizens” project got started: I felt impelled to delve into these so-called “common sense parties” whose promises of a better life are based on lies and manipulation. I began crisscrossing Europe, making stops at populist strongholds and attending nationalist gatherings all over the continent.
The photographs of “Citizens” were shot in Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Denmark, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands between 2013 and 2020.
