Between 2019 and 2025, documentary photographer Charles Paulicevich traveled through various sectors of the Belgian working world, including factories, quarries, construction sites, and warehouses. With the support of the FGTB union network, he negotiated one-by-one access to these locations to meet workers. His project extends beyond the factory floor, capturing moments like weddings, baptisms, parties, and demonstrations, where the same faces appear outside their work environments.
These 130 images aim to portray the world of work without artifice or complacency, highlighting dignified individuals who are often invisible and rarely counted, yet whose imagination transcends their condition. Through their accumulation, these photographs serve as a document of our time and outline a horizon of collective gathering.
The title "NOUS, la réserve" (WE, the reserve) echoes the Marxist theory of an invisible reserve labor force, always present and waiting, kept by capitalism to be called upon or rejected according to economic tides. However, under Paulicevich's lens, this "phantom legion" rises. It is no longer an anonymous silence, a faceless crowd, but becomes a collective 'We,' a community of faces, bodies, and stories resisting invisibility.
Charles Paulicevich is a documentary photographer who graduated from ENSAV La Cambre (Master's in Photography, 2009) and is certified in plastic arts from ARTS2 Mons (2017). He has been teaching photography at the École Agnès Varda in Brussels since 2009. His work explores human and social territories, from streets to workplaces, from urban margins to collective gatherings, and has been exhibited internationally.
This project is a collaboration by the Centrale Générale FGTB / Algemene Centrale ABVV (ACCG), with participation from the École Agnès Varda.
