228 - Valerie Belin
© Valerie Belin
A student at the École Beaux-arts de Versailles (1983–1985), and then at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Bourges (1985-1988), French artist Valerie Belin obtained the French higher national diploma in visual expression in 1988 and also holds a diploma in advanced studies (DEA) in the philosophy of art from the Université de Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne (1989).
Initially influenced by various minimalist and conceptual tendencies, Valérie became interested in the photographic medium in its own right; this is at once the subject of her work and her way of reflecting and creating. Light, matter and the “body” of things and beings in general, as well as their transformations and representations, constitute the terrain of her experiments and the world of her artistic ideas. Her work is articulated in photographic series, each one produced within the framework of a specific project.
Valérie’s work has been exhibited around the world and is held in numerous public and private collections. Winner of the Prix Pictet in 2015 (Disorder), she was made an officer of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2017. This same year, a touring exhibition was co-produced by the Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing, the SCôP in Shanghai and the Chengdu Museum. In 2019, Valérie unveiled a major new series at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and this year, 2024, she has been named as Master of Photography at Photo London where she will have a major career retrospective.
Valerie lives and works in Paris.
In episode 228, Valerie discusses, among other things:
Her father being an artist at heart
the influence of a particular teacher
The dual influence of American minimal art and Italian baroque art
How she discovered photography and was inspired by a misogynistic teacher
Not photographing people initially
Presence and absence
Why she chose bodybuilders as her first foray into shooting people
The theme of beauty
How women are ‘attacked’ by stereotypes
AI being paradoxical to what she wants to show
the importance of Photoshop to her practice
Where the ideas come from
Use of comic books
Making a living
Recent series’ ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lady Stardust’.
Referenced:
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