On assignment for l'Obs | Mélanie Wenger

The photographer went back in the steps of writer Sophie Fay to her childhood city, at the border between France and Belgium, for the feature 'Radioscopie de la France' for the magazine L'Obs. Digging in the frozen border town, she documented the transformation of a French city in one generation. What happened when industry collapsed. Capturing the soul of the workers’ neighbourhoods of the abandoned Cellatex factories and the death of the city centre, she photographed Givet, one of many towns that uncovered new momentum with the opening of the Schengen borders.