Amélie Landry

biography

French photographer, born in 1981, based in Brussels (Belgium)

Born in the Paris region, Amélie Landry studied Applied Arts in Toulouse before specializing in multimedia at Institut des arts de diffusion de Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). In parallel, she attended evening courses in photography at Molenbeek Academy in Brussels for 3 years.

With a form of investigation inspired by the social sciences, Amélie Landry develops a documentary photography that questions the uses of public space, a space that aims to be a territory of “living together” but brings out in negative the hidden, the silent, and even the suspect.

From 2011 to 2017, she led the project Les Chemins égarés, a real long-term investigation into the sexual meeting places of “silent communities” (initial title of the project): autonomous and free spaces of freedom, with variable and invisible locations for the uninitiated, where men of all ages and backgrounds exercise their desire for experiences.

Winner of the 2012 Scam Creation Grant, Amélie Landry deploys this project far from any sensationalism, and through different types of documents – landscape photographs, in situ photographic portraits, maps of territories, collection of users’ words and testimonies. In 2017 the project is unveiled in a cross-media form: a book by Editions du Bec en l’Air, a radio creation broadcasted on France Culture, and an exhibition at Galerie VU’.

While travelling around France to realize Les Chemins égarés, she is struck by the fact being often questioned and asked by ordinary citizens to justify her presence in the public space. A form of social control which strives to normalize behaviors, that she also experiments by walking through districts with neighbor watchdog organizations. In 2018, she then launched her project Voisins Vigilants, winner of the Obs 2018 prize at the “Les Femmes s’exposent” festival, thus opening the first chapter of a more general work-in-progress about the intruder’s figure.

Series

Chronicle, 2020

March-May 2020, France during the 55 days of lockdown due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The Eyes Of The Territory, 2019

This project questions the control mechanisms in the public space where an individual who is not moving is suspect, and the role of citizens who engage in this type of surveillance. We will not see paramilitaries in the images...

Amélie Landry séries

The Wayward Paths, 2017

Cruising sites can be found everywhere but not just anywhere. Once located in the heart of urban centres, today they are nearly exclusively located on the city limits or outside of cities: disused industrials zones, scrublands, motorway rest areas, and coastal dunes...

Amélie Landry séries

Chronicle, 2020

March-May 2020, France during the 55 days of lockdown due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Amélie Landry séries

The Eyes Of The Territory, 2019

This project questions the control mechanisms in the public space where an individual who is not moving is suspect, and the role of citizens who engage in this type of surveillance. We will not see paramilitaries in the images...

Amélie Landry séries

The Wayward Paths, 2017

Cruising sites can be found everywhere but not just anywhere. Once located in the heart of urban centres, today they are nearly exclusively located on the city limits or outside of cities: disused industrials zones, scrublands, motorway rest areas, and coastal dunes...

Amélie Landry séries

Chronicle, 2020

March-May 2020, France during the 55 days of lockdown due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Amélie Landry séries

The Eyes Of The Territory, 2019

This project questions the control mechanisms in the public space where an individual who is not moving is suspect, and the role of citizens who engage in this type of surveillance. We will not see paramilitaries in the images...

Amélie Landry séries

The Wayward Paths, 2017

Cruising sites can be found everywhere but not just anywhere. Once located in the heart of urban centres, today they are nearly exclusively located on the city limits or outside of cities: disused industrials zones, scrublands, motorway rest areas, and coastal dunes...