Joel Domenjoud is a citizen like any other. Well, almost: he has been under house arrest in the name of the state of emergency since 4.30pm on 26 November 2015. A member of the legal team of the Climate Coalition, the thirty-something, somewhat disheveled, softly-spoken activist with no criminal record, finds himself a prisoner of Malakoff, his town of residence until the end of the COP21, on Saturday 12 December. 

The case against him? Nothing besides his political dissent. Iniquitous, grotesque, Kafkaesque, his situation is emblematic of the security excesses that have shaken France since the terrorist attacks of 13 November. He is one of almost four hundred house arrests. 

We spent time with Joel. Not only to evoke his activities to date, and his fears, but also to understand a control and surveillance system that is conspicuous in its invisibility. 

House arrest is not spectacular: indeed, it’s dramatically banal. Which makes it no less formidable.

Photography by Ed Alcock / Agence Myop and words by Olivier Tesquet