Felipe Romero Beltrán

1992, Colombia
Nominee - Prix Elysée 2025

Felipe Romero Beltrán (CO, 1992) is a Colombian photographer currently based in Paris. His artistic endeavours are deeply rooted in exploring social issues, with a particular focus on the tension that arises from the introduction of new narratives within the realm of documentary photography.

Felipe Romero Beltrán’s practice is characterized by its commitment to long-term projects, accompanied by research on the context of his work. He pursued his academic journey with an interest in photography, culminating in a PhD in 2024.

Artist's website

Project

A Body That Speaks As a Bird

“The sound of birds and the origin of the word photography are closely related. The naturalist painter and inventor Hercule Florence (1804-1879) coined the word photography at the same time as he developed another recording technique in Brazil. He intended to translate on paper the sound of birds: a system of notations that would allow us to hear and identify the voice of a body, that in the city, and thus far from the forest, was never seen – the bird. In this sense, Florence develops two core bodies of work: the recording techniques of light and the disembodied voice of the bird. Although the link between both techniques is barely visible anymore, they are intrinsically connected.

Between 1940 and 1980, a large part of the rural population in Colombia migrated to urban centres. People accumulated on the outskirts of the cities, which became densely populated. Different attempts were implemented in order to assist this transition: government programs, primary education centres and behaviour manuals built the basis for how to conduct oneself in the city.

Each attempt describes two conditions: civil and uncivil bodies. The entire political program, although in a veiled manner, details this translation. When speaking to another person, says the law, the body cannot perform uncivil acts – such as imitating the sound of birds. Once in the city, uncivil acts are linked to disembodied voices that came from far away, in other words, to the countryside population that migrated into the city. After all, the body remains.

With my project A Body That Speaks As a Bird, I want to analyse this translation of an uncivil body into the city. They had to behave differently; they had to hide their old ways. To what extent can the body be translated from the mountains to the city? To what extent can one leave the uncivil, leave its height, its vegetation, arrive at the first houses, open a door and stay there? Do uncivil acts appear in conversations, without one expecting it, in the most inopportune way? Does the multiplicity of voices still reside on the muted surface of the city?”

Podcast

Originally from Colombia, Felipe Romero Beltrán has lived abroad for half of his life. Recently, he aimed to reconnect with his homeland while integrating research into the history of photography.

From his apartment in Paris, he talks about his project nominated for the Prix Elysée 2025, A Body That Speaks As a Bird, which revisits the 20th century, documenting the significant shift of lifestyles from the countryside to urban areas in Colombia, an episode that resonates with the photographer's own family history.