Yto Barrada, A Life Full of Holes / The Strait Project, 2005

Since it was published in 2005, this book has become a cult classic. Yto Barrada’s work poetically explores issues of migration, diaspora, access and exclusion. The Strait of Gibraltar has become one of the main gateways for illegal immigration into Europe. Barrada, a Parisian-born photographer of Moroccan heritage, captures a mood of longing, weariness and alienation in this book. She asks the question: what is the condition of a country whose people are all leaving, or trying to leave? She discovers in Morocco a place in permanent transience and a population forever looking at the Spanish coastline for hope and a better life, yet rarely succeeding in reaching their destination. Barrada’s photographs, taken between 1998 and 2004, capture the temptations of leaving, and the unfulfilled hopes of escaping across the Strait into Europe. Includes a text by Barrada, and extracts of a conversation between Yto Barrada and the philosopher Nadia Tazi.