Mercedes Polo Portillo
Mercedes Polo Portillo is a photographer based in the UK, whose work covers travel, portrait, product and interior design. She has been working for creative and commercial photography and now is focusing in documental project with a more social and political background. Instagram: @mercedespoloportillo
I would like to share with you my new project, VENDANGE. It is an autobiographical work carried out during a trip to France in the grape harvest. It is an analysis of a precarious employment situation, of the life alternatives that arise from the COVID-19 pandemic, of the escape to the natural at a time when cities are confined.
VENDANGE
We retire from the world before it collapses. We escaped from the city, from an uncomfortable and lasting situation, to land on the vineyards of the south of France, turned golden by the light that the Côte d'Azur imprints on the horizon. We were heading towards an ephemeral future job in another country, we convinced ourselves that this was the best of the few possibilities that this static moment gave us.
Young generations are forced to assume a present in which they can apply behavioral alternatives based on the changes that the world is experiencing. The escape to nature, in relation to cities that are relegated to confinement, as well as the scarcity of opportunities, presents new realities.
We never imagined that working in the fields was going to be a true gift. Society is responsible for staining and discrediting a multitude of professions due to the lack of required qualifications, something that represents an impact on the new generations and avoids the development of manual tasks that are still necessary. The idea of a dubious situation in the future encourages society to turn to other forms of life that break with the established and come closer, in some ways, to times in the past where the human being lived in greater harmony with their surroundings.
This idyllic experience is based on humane and dignified working conditions. Working for a small “domaine” of sustainable production brought with it the denial of the nefarious treatment to which millions of day laborers are subjected in countless parts of the world. It is only under a series of requirements that respect the dignity and quality of life of the worker that the agriculture and harvesting work can be encouraged.
Human movement is generated from bottom to top, from South to North: from Morocco to Spain, from Spain to France or from France to Switzerland. Many have to move from the homeland to seek more favorable conditions.
