Maëlle Collin (b. 1989, Brussels, BE) is a Belgian photographer currently based in New York City. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 2013 with an MFA in visarts/photography. She was granted various prizes including the “City of Brussels prize / Médiatine 2015” which allowed her to showcase her work at the Centrale for Contemporary Art in Brussels in the summer of 2016.
Shelter
My photography journey has been strongly linked to my personal history so my experiences feature heavily in my work. Whether ordinary or extraordinary, the events that I come across day to day affect me with a certain degree of intensity. Each one awakens the desire and need in me to build something based on them (the events in my life) so as to get closer to them, to better understand them and accept them. It is a confrontation to some degree between my inner me and the world that surrounds me, a willing attempt to develop the knowledge that I have of each of them. When looking at my experiences, my body, which is an impressionable, sensitive surface, is affected. The film in my camera is an attempt to transpose that; therein lies the essence of my photography work. It is essential that things happen that way for me so that I feel the desire to take shots when I do. It is the experiences I’ve lived through and the transformations they stir in me that, I believe, win over the pictures themselves although I will also say the photos play an important role in their own right.
“Shelter” is a series I started after I found myself caught in a devastating storm in Belgium a few years ago… I consider it a journey through nature. A journey telling the story of someone seeking for refuge from nature exerting its power…
To view more of Maëlle’s work please visit her website.