»Form follows feminine.«

Oscar Niemeyer

Blog LENS

Fabulous Fictions 4

Laurent Chéhère

  • “À Vendre”: house for sale, no garden, difficult access. (All photos: Laurent Chéhère, courtesy Galerie Paris-Beijing) 1 / 15  “À Vendre”: house for sale, no garden, difficult access. (All photos: Laurent Chéhère, courtesy Galerie Paris-Beijing)
  • “Harmonie”: peaceful location, no neighbours. 2 / 15  “Harmonie”: peaceful location, no neighbours.
  • “Linge-qui-seche”: a flying, drying machine. 3 / 15  “Linge-qui-seche”: a flying, drying machine.
  • “En-feu”: hey-elp! 4 / 15  “En-feu”: hey-elp!
  • “Blanchisserie”: dirty laundry. 5 / 15  “Blanchisserie”: dirty laundry.
  • “McDo”: I’m lovin’ it. 6 / 15  “McDo”: I’m lovin’ it.
  • “Cirque”: flying circus. 7 / 15  “Cirque”: flying circus.
  • “Le Voyeur”: rooms with views, not overlooked. 8 / 15  “Le Voyeur”: rooms with views, not overlooked.
  • “Caravane”: no ties on the open road. 9 / 15  “Caravane”: no ties on the open road.
  • “Cinema”: no seedy back-alley entrance. 10 / 15  “Cinema”: no seedy back-alley entrance.
  • “Trace au mur”: did it fall or was it pushed? 11 / 15  “Trace au mur”: did it fall or was it pushed?
  • “Hotel du Lion d’Or”: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. 12 / 15  “Hotel du Lion d’Or”: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
  • “Nature Morte”: airship ark. 13 / 15  “Nature Morte”: airship ark.
  • “Petit-Journal”: window-cleaner's dilemma. 14 / 15  “Petit-Journal”: window-cleaner's dilemma.
  • “Sans Concession”: ash cloud. 15 / 15  “Sans Concession”: ash cloud.

In the fourth and final part of uncubes short series on photographers and artists who like to bend the built truth, Jeanette Kunsmann showcases the artistic personal projects of the French commercial photographer Laurent Chéhère.

When Laurent Chéhère puts his abandoned or burning brick buildings up in the clouds the result is a series of fairy tale-like collages. He takes real buildings as his starting point, snapped in popular districts of his hometown of Paris such as Belleville and Ménilmontant. Using a combination of imagination and Photoshop, he frees the buildings from their original contexts and sets them in the sky like balloons. He is inspired, he says, by “poetic visions of old Paris”.

But, as with Chéhère’s work McDo for example – a small McDonald’s branch building with its plain rendered façade, these fairy tale castles-in-the-air are anything but romantic. “I tried to get these sad houses out of the anonymity of the street”, he says, “to help them to tell their story – true or fantasised”.

Chéhère has been working on his sombre Flying Houses series since 2007 and it has brought him many admirers, a considerable amount of press interest, an award (Prix Special at the Dock en Seine City of Fashion and Design, 2012) and a first exhibition in the noted French gallery Paris-Beijing. When he is not busy making his art, Chéhère earns his daily bread shooting portrait photos and advertising for clients such as Nike and Audi – a different kind of fairy tale imagery entirely.

– Jeanette Kunsmann is a freelance journalist and editor at Baunetz

www.galerieparisbeijing.com

RECENT POSTS

more

Recent Magazines

25 Apr 2016

Magazine No. 43
Athens

  • essay

    From the Bottom and the Top

    Powering Athens through collectivity and informal initiatives by Cristina Ampatzidou

  • photo essay

    Nowhere Now Here

    A photo essay by Yiorgis Yerolymbos

  • Essay

    Back to the Garden

    Athens and opportunities for new urban strategies by Aristide Antonas

  • Interview

    Point Supreme

    An interview by Ellie Stathaki

>

03 Mar 2016

Magazine No. 42
Walk the Line

  • Essay

    The Line Connects

    An essay on drawing and architectural education by Wes Jones

  • Essay

    Drawing Attention

    Phineas Harper sketches out new narrative paths with pencil power

  • Essay

    Gotham

    Elvia Wilk on a city of shadows as architectural fiction

  • Interview

    The (Not So) Fine Line

    A conversation thread between Sophie Lovell and architecture cartoonist Klaus

>

28 Jan 2016

Magazine No. 41
Zvi Hecker

  • essay

    Space Packers

    Zvi Hecker’s career-defining partnership with Eldar Sharon and Alfred Neumann by Rafi Segal

  • Interview

    Essentially I am a Medieval Architect

    An interview with Zvi Hecker by Vladimir Belogolovsky

  • viewpoint

    The Technion Affair

    Breaking and entering in the name of architectural integrity by Zvi Hecker

  • Photo Essay

    Revisiting Yesterday’s Future

    A photo essay by Gili Merin

>

17 Dec 2015

Magazine No. 40
Iceland

  • Viewpoint

    Wish You Were Here

    Arna Mathiesen asks: Refinancing Iceland with tourism – but at what cost?

  • Photo Essay

    Spaces Create Bodies, Bodies Create Space

    An essay by Ólafur Elíasson

  • Focus

    Icelandic Domestic

    Focus on post-independence houses by George Kafka

  • Essay

    The Harp That Sang

    The saga of Reykjavík's Concert Hall by Sophie Lovell & Fiona Shipwright

>

more

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAILING LIST Close

Uncube is brandnew and wants to look good.
For best performance please update your browser.
Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 10 (or higher), Safari, Chrome, Opera

×