In the book, Chronicle of an Algerian Summer (1993) Magnum photographer Patrick Zachmann's documents the city of Oran during the summer of 1992. Oscillating between a subjective and objective gaze, Zachmann's images are less a portrait of a city than an attempt to trace back his maternal family roots. As Zachmann puts it, "This project interested me more for its relationship to immigration – from here - and to my own story than for its documentary dimension."
Far from perpetuating a colonial gaze, these images provide an intimate look at different families in Oran amidst a rapidly changing socio-political...