Ilse Frech, I AM – PARADOX IDENTITY, 2008

Photographer Ilse Frech produces an innovative, unbound folio that gives a larger-than-life view of dozens of young Muslim women who live in the outer suburbs of Paris. Frech, whose other major projects include Russia Love and Family Document, interviewed and photographed women in their homes and at work to explore their relationships with their own religion and culture, with French culture, with their race, and with being young women. The intimate photographs and interview excerpts compile a ménage of individuals who lead, in many ways, dual lives. Waves of immigration in Europe have led to greater diversity and wrenching confrontation; this deeply human collection of photographs combats stereotypes of Muslims and Muslim culture.