Photographer Valérie Kagy is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘Both sides’. To see Valérie’s body of work, click on any photograph.

On one side, Marina Beach, one of Chennai’s ‘light’ attractions.

At the end of the day, its soft light, serenity and beautiful sunsets made it an inspiring place for the inhabitants and visitors of Chennai. You come there with family or friends, dip your feet in the water and enjoy the fullness of this place conducive to contemplation. The night comes quickly, the colourful ‘loupiotes’ of the food stands and makeshift rides, illuminate the faces of children and their parents.

On the other side, the artistic district of Nochikuppam.

The night is installed, the hustle and bustle of the neighbourhood takes over. The aggressive lights of the buildings illuminate the colours of the murals and the life at their feet. These works resonate with the spirit of the fishing communities that live there: explorations leaning on stories in resonance with the sea. But behind this urban and artistic dynamic, the history of this real estate project has a completely different reality.

The 2004 tsunami and the 2015 floods devastated a large number of traditional homes of Nochikuppam fishermen. The Indian authorities then developed real estate projects aimed at rehousing these communities but above all at recovering the premises for the beautification of the city and facilitating traffic. Also, entire seaside villages were destroyed, hundreds of people relocated or crammed into these buildings across the road. The beauty of the murals masks unhealthy living conditions and unparalleled promiscuity. To date, of the 1000 families only 600 have been relocated and 400 have been waiting, some for more than 7 years in the slum in makeshift tents. It’s the fish stalls held by the women along Marina Loop Road, where we were, that mark the entrance to the slum.

Artist Statement

Valérie Kagy is a French-Vietnamese street photographer based in New Caledonia. Her work unfolds in the in-between — between cultures, geographies, light and shadow.

She moves through public space with a heightened awareness of tension and fragility. Her photographs do not seek climax; they inhabit the charged stillness of transitional moments. A glance that slips away. A body caught between architecture and light. A fragment of colour disrupting the ordinary.

Working instinctively yet with compositional precision, she constructs images where structure and emotion coexist. Urban lines, shadows, and saturated tones create a visual framework within which human presence becomes both central and vulnerable.

Her perspective is shaped by displacement and plurality. Living across cultural contexts informs a gaze that is neither fully inside nor outside. This distance allows her to observe how individuals negotiate space — how identity, memory, and environment intersect in the street.

Valerie Kagy’s practice resists spectacle. Instead, it focuses on subtle human intensity — on what almost disappears. Each frame is an act of attention, preserving fleeting configurations of emotion before they dissolve back into the flow of the city.

Her photography is less about documenting reality than about revealing its psychological undercurrents — the quiet humanity embedded in everyday life.

All images and text © Valérie Kagy

Valérie’s Previous Contribution To Edge Of Humanity Magazine