État

This book brings together the experience of photographer Paolo Woods, who has been in Haiti since 2010, and journalist and writer Arnaud Robert.
By its ambition, journalistic as well as poetic, it draws the universal part of a national adventure that concerns us more than we think.

Haiti is a contradiction. A nation particularly proud of its unique history, its language, its singular culture. But with a state that remains sometimes absent and almost always dysfunctional. State tracks this fundamental question: what happens in a society whose government is ineffective and whose state fails to provide basic services to its people?

This beautiful book starts with images that speak of order rather than chaos, comedy rather than tragedy. It describes dynamics that are common to all developing countries: international organizations versus local government; civil society versus executive power; private money versus public money.

It is structured around six thematic chapters, each of which explores an aspect of public power and its alternatives in Haiti.