Aurélie’s Gallery presents No Land a new online photography exhibit by French-Dutch female artist Kiritin Beyer.
From a former penal colony in French Guyana to a closed sanatorium in New York Bay, Kiritin Beyer captured how nature reclaims man-made constructions and erases painful pasts. Her images evoke human endeavors colliding with the passage of time. They speak of death and decay, oblivion and history, but also of life and the continuum of time.
Armed with a 4×5 film camera, Kiritin Beyer ventured into North Brother Island and St. Joseph Island to reveal their secrets. From 1852 to 1952, St. Joseph Island in French Guyana served as a penal colony, where inmates faced solitary confinement as punishment for attempted escapes or offenses. Meanwhile, North Brother Island witnessed its own share of tragedy. From 1881 to 1943, the island housed Riverside Hospital and its tuberculosis sanatorium and pavilions for various illnesses, along with laboratories. It later served as a youth drug rehabilitation center from 1952 to 1964.
Kiritin Beyer’s series is part of “urbex” photography. Urbex is short for urban exploration, an often illegal and dangerous activity where people explore abandoned buildings, hidden tunnels, and forgotten places. Its origins can be traced to the 1960s. From a secret subculture shared by a few, it grew in popularity over the years. Besides the thrill of danger and the appeal of the unknown, urbex is about uncovering the layers of history that are hidden underneath new construction or vegetation.
Kiritin Beyer was born in Copenhagen to a French mother and a Danish father. The five years she spent in Paris working as a model convinced her that she enjoyed being behind the lens rather than in front of it.
She came to New York to pursue photography and filmmaking in 2004. In 2012, Beyer won a Film fellowship from BRIC (a Brooklyn-based art foundation). Her short film “Imagination is Creation” was nominated in the Arts Category at the Emmy Awards. In 2014, she documented in India natural colors and pigments used in textiles, arts and Ayurveda practice. The resulting film, “A Trail of Pigment,” received BRIC’s B Free Award.
Kiritin Beyer now lives in Brooklyn, NY, and works as a photographer and videographer on a variety of projects.
Aurélie’s Gallery was started in 2022 by Aurélie Jézéquel, a former advertising and fashion producer. The online gallery and e-commerce platform celebrates the many talented photographers Aurélie met throughout her career.
