Aurélie Belair is an artist who lives and works in Paris and Nevers, France. She utilizes the medium of photography to explore motifs of mystery thetypify remote locations. The artist works with a combination of real and artificial settings to render the impression of absence within the context of physical geography. In particular Belair focuses on the exterior structures, especially houses, and creates a space of landscape around it that remains absent of human activity.

Dans la grande fosse des formes, gisent les ruines auxquelles on tient encore, en partie (2009) shows the montage of a blue house over an otherwise the ruined frame. The tree-lined enclosure creates a stronger focus around Belair’s subject. The Voyageurs-series from 2010 features an 18th-century ship built of wood navigating oceans, inlets and ice. However the shifting nature of place appears in a more recent series of photographs titled Lieu Dit (2012), meaning A Place Called. Here, many different types of homes appear within the photographer’s spotlight: singled-out yet undefined. Belair not only suggests a close connection between narrative and site, but she also critiques the lifestyle of isolation.

Aurélie Belair received her first solo show titled Ruines at the Galerie Premier Regard in Paris from January to February 2012. From May to June, her work also appeared in the Biennale des Créateurs d’Images that took place at the Cité de la Mode et du Design in Paris. In 2011 Belair’s photography appeared in six group shows throughout Paris such as Utopie at Galerie Snoop, the 10th Anniversary exhibition of Galerie Premier Regard at the Bastille Design Center and The Nofound Photofair at the Garage Turenne. Her work also appeared in L’exposition au 56eme Salon de Montrouge in Montrouge.