Laurent Chéhère was born in 1972 in Paris into a creative family: his father was engaged in video making, mother — in painting. The area of interest and social circle of the parents helped Scheer to plunge into the cultural environment from childhood. At a young age, he became a famous advertising photographer. When the stage of commercial photography was passed, Chéhère began to develop in a different direction and devoted himself to high photography. The photographer now lives in Menilmontant, a famous international district of the French capital. This area serves as a source of inspiration for him: it was there that he discovered his passion for travel, people and stories from all over the world.
It was in and around Paris that the «Flying houses» series was born, reflecting the poetic vision of the city. The floating houses, taken from the slender and austere ensemble of Parisian streets, have been transformed into independent artistic images, each of which carries particular cultural signs as starting points for a spiritual journey. Photos are elaborate photomontages, the result of thoughtful and meticulous work. The author selects various elements and details, photographed many times at the same angle and at a particular hour, to then combine them into one structure. The features of the building — an antenna, windows, a sign with the name of the street or the house itself, graffiti on the walls — under the virtuoso control of the photographer, begin to talk about Paris, who is now or lost, which is so close to the author himself. Deprived of «obligations», houses open their doors to the viewer and invite them to take a journey through space and time.
Since the last exhibition at the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography in 2015, Laurent Chéhère’s works has been presented at the international photography fairs Photo Basel 2020, ParisPhoto 2019, Les Rencontres d’Arles 2019, Photo London 2019, ParisPhoto 2018, Fotofever Carrousel du Louvre 2018 and AIPAD Photography Show 2017. In 2016, at the charity auction of the Natalia Vodianova Foundation “Naked Heart” (Naked Heart Foundation), the work of Laurent Chéhère from the series “Flying Houses”, provided by the Lumiere Gallery, was sold for 10 thousand euros with an estimate of 7.2 thousand euros. In 2018, Kehrer Editions presented a book with works by Laurent Chéhère from the “Flying Houses” series at the ParisPhoto 2018 artfair.
