Florence Debeugny

Raised in France, I learnt to notice and appreciate the passage of time on buildings. As a photographer, videographer and sound artist, I explore how capital investments in industries and housing affect people, sometimes compelling workers and residents to move away.

Since 2000, my work has explored BC mining, fishing and forestry communities that have been abandoned or on the edge to be erased. As a result, future generations may become unable to experience these endangered ways of living.

I have also developed a photographic abstraction style as seen in the works Deterioration, Through, Precaution, and Night Language. In industrial sites, I come across shapes, lines and layers which I study closely, abstracting images from the subject and sometimes creating optical effects.

At a very young age, I took photos of trees. As a young adult, I started my photographic expertise in selling photo-cameras in a specialized photo store in France. I also processed my own black and white photographs in a dark room I installed in my apartment. Once in Canada, I attended photographic courses at Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia. I also took some video courses at VIVO in Vancouver.

I focused the last few years on studying ways to present my photographs other than prints hanging on walls of art galleries which I have done several times. This multi-disciplinary approach adds a human dimension to my photography-based practice and allows a variety of possible set-ups in art galleries’ spaces.

I show my artistic work in public art galleries, artist centers and museums.