Photographers

Aurore Valade (born 1981 in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, France) is a French contemporary photographer whose work combines staged photography, documentary practices, and collaborative performance. A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux and the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles, she is widely recognized for her elaborately constructed images that explore the intersections between intimacy, social identity, and political expression. Her practice often involves working closely with residents of a given place to create performative portraits drawn from their daily lives, personal histories, and domestic spaces.

Valade’s early work focused on interior scenes in which subjects reenact or reinterpret gestures from their own lives. This approach earned her several major distinctions, including the HSBC Prize for Photography (2008), the Prix du Musée d’Art Moderne de Collioure (2006), the Bourse du Talent (2005), and the Arca Swiss Prize (2005). In 2015–2016, she was an artist member of the Casa de Velázquez (Académie de France à Madrid), where she developed a politically engaged body of work investigating themes of revolt, indignation, and collective voice, producing the notable series *Digo yo* and *Se Manifester*, which received the Photo Folio Review Award at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2017.

Her images blend archival research, performance, scenography, and documentary elements, creating densely layered compositions that embody the richness and contradictions of contemporary social life. Valade’s practice is also informed by ecological thinking and an interest in the interdependence between humans and their environments. She has published monographs with Actes Sud (*Grand Miroir*), Diaphane (*Plein Air*, *Moulinages*), and Asimétricas (*Révoltes Intimes*), and has exhibited internationally across Europe, Mexico, and the United States. She is represented by Gagliardi e Domke Gallery in Turin. In addition to her artistic practice, Valade also works in museum photography through the collective PhotoMuseo.