Marc Vallée

Vallée was raised in West London.

From the late 1980s, he worked as a layout artist and typesetter for Militant, the newspaper of Militant tendency, for five years.

He enrolled in art school as a painter in the early 1990s, graduating with a BA in Fine Art in 1997, and a MA in Art, Design and Visual Culture in 1999, both from the Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design in London.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-23|title=Inside a '90s art school student house|url=https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/inside-a-90s-art-school-student-house/|date=20 January 2021|website=Huck Magazine}}{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Marc Vallee Book Launch - London Metropolitan University|url=https://www.londonmet.ac.uk/news/articles/marc-vallee-book-launch/|website=www.londonmet.ac.uk}}

In the 2000s, Vallée worked as a photojournalist at protests, mainly in London, and worked on investigations for The Guardian and the Financial Times. He was badly injured by police during a demonstration in Parliament Square in October 2006.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Editorial Photographers UK - Injured photographer wins settlement, costs and apology from Met Police|url=http://www.epuk.org/news/vallee-accepts-met-settlement|website=www.epuk.org}}{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Demonstrating respect for rights? A human rights approach to policing protest - Human Rights Joint Committee|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200809/jtselect/jtrights/47/47we61.htm|website=publications.parliament.uk}}{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Marc Vallée: Journalists on the front line at the G20 protests|url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/apr/16/policing-g20-journalists|date=17 April 2009|website=The Guardian}}

Vallée's documentary photography since 2010{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-26|title=Rewriting the city - 1854 Photography|url=https://www.1854.photography/2018/02/marc-vallee-vandals-in-the-city/|website=www.1854.photography}} has been about the tension between public and private space, in the context of youth culture in cities. He has predominantly self-published in short run, black and white, A5 zines (unless otherwise indicated).

Andrew Finch has written for Elephant:

Today, Vallée’s work predominantly focuses on the lives of people that navigate the margins of the nocturnal landscape, and those often at odds with the structured flow of neoliberal cities. His subjects are often young, male social transgressors; from graffiti writers and sex workers to activists and urban explorers, they disrupt the capitalist system while in pursuit of their own desires and identities.

A number of zines document graffiti culture. Writers (2012) looks at graffiti artists working in Leake Street, a road tunnel under Waterloo station where the practice is tolerated. Vandals and the City (2016) documents a graffiti crew in London over the course of a year. According to the British Journal of Photography, "Vallée’s photographs capture the group at work, their identities always disguised, in different locations around the capital during both day and night." "Despite having lived in London his whole life, accompanying the group encouraged him to see the capital from a new perspective, and question the ownership ascribed to different urban spaces" In the zine's foreword, Oliver Zanetti positions "the act of graffiti as a disruption of London's enslavement to the corporations of neoliberalism."{{cite news|access-date=2021-10-23|title=Writing on the wall: inside London's graffiti scene – in pictures|url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2016/jul/13/writing-wall-inside-london-graffiti-scene-pictures|newspaper=The Guardian|date=13 July 2016|issn=0261-3077}} The Graffiti Trucks of Paris (2017) and The Graffiti Trucks of London (2018) collect photographs of vans singled out for having been covered by graffiti in the respective cities.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Shooting the graffiti trucks of Paris|url=https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/graffiti-trucks-of-paris/|date=8 March 2017|website=Huck Magazine}} Down and Up in Paris (2019) shows an individual in the act of writing graffiti in various locations in the titular city at night.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Marc Vallée's latest photo series follows a graffiti writer at work on the Paris streets|url=https://hero-magazine.com//article/146667/marc-vallees-latest-photo-series-follows-a-graffiti-writer-at-work-on-the-paris-streets|website=Hero}}

He has made a few zines about queer culture. Queer (2014) "documents two years in the life of the writer Dom Lyne, at his home in Camden Town." Vallée has said that it was made as an antidote or reaction to the "homogenised gay world"; about Lyne's struggle with mental illness; and "about the importance of an alternative queer gaze".{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Berlin stories of transgression, sexuality and landscape - 1854 Photography|url=https://www.1854.photography/2015/08/tiergarten-zine-marc-vallee/|website=www.1854.photography}} Tiergarten Transgression (2015) follows a queer anarchist exploring the gay cruising area in Berlin's Tiergarten park one afternoon.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-26|title=Tiergarten Transgression by Marc Vallée|url=http://selfpublishbehappy.com/2019/02/tiergarten-transgression-by-marc-vallee/|website=Self Publish, Be Happy}} According to the British Journal of Photography, "the zine looks at landscape and space, sexuality and the act of transgression – or the act of seeking it out." Documenting Thierry (2017) is a portrait of young male sex worker and queer rights activist Thierry Schaffauser and about "the social, economic and political issues that sex workers face". The photographs were taken in Schaffauser's home in London, between 2010 and 2012.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-23|title=Up close and personal with male sex worker and activist Thierry Schaffauser|url=https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/thierry-schaffauser-marc-vallee/|date=16 June 2017|website=Huck Magazine}}{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=This zine is documenting a male sex worker fighting for queer rights|url=https://hero-magazine.com//article/97235/marc-vallee-documenting-thierry|website=Hero}} When I was at Art School in the 90s (2020; in colour) documents queer youth in the late 1990s "in their natural habitat, trying on various outfits and different styles, pretending to be lovers, in a carefree creative display", "but also something more complex. It is Vallée's response to what came before: a community slowly emerging from the horror of the 80s and early 90s global AIDS epidemic. The pictures, which were shot over one day in 1998 in an east London student house, depict an alternate vibrant world of experimentation inhabited by Vallée, Jamie, and Lloyd — all art students at the Cass School of Art opposite the Whitechapel Gallery."{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-23|title=When I Was at Art School in the 90s|url=https://www.1854.photography/2021/04/when-i-was-at-art-school-in-the-90s/|website=British Journal of Photography}}

Zines set in the context of skateboarding include Anti-Skateboarding Devices (2012; in colour), photographs of anti-skate devices, a form of hostile architecture;{{cite magazine|date=2014|page=81,82|access-date=2021-10-26|title=Anti-Skateboarding Devices|url=https://files.cargocollective.com/c95714/Source-Magazine-2014.pdf|magazine=Source (photography magazine)}} and Documenting Dylan (2013; colour and black and white) shows the life of eighteen-year-old skateboarder Dylan Leadley-Watkins from south east London.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Marc Vallée: Number Four|url=https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/print/zine-scene-print/marc-vallee/|date=17 October 2013|website=Huck Magazine}}{{cite book|first1=Marc|last1=Vallée|title=Number four|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/918969443|publisher=Marc Vallée|oclc=918969443 |via=Open WorldCat}}

Millbank and that Van (Café Royal, 2014) contains photojournalistic coverage of the 2010 United Kingdom student protests in London.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-26|title=Millbank to Owens Park: how the student protests of 2010 informed the politics of now|url=https://theface.com/society/manchester-university-occupation-coronavirus-covid-19-millbank-2010-student-protest?token=fohqnak4nqyqoobmogt1ron8-ipsrowh|website=The Face|date=23 November 2020 }}{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-26|title=The untold story of the 2010 student protests|url=https://www.huckmag.com/perspectives/the-untold-story-of-the-2010-student-protests/|date=17 November 2020|website=Huck Magazine}}

Number Four (2013) contains a mix of photographs taken in 2013 from the London skateboarding, photography and zine publishing scenes, including of Long Live Southbank, Dom Lyne and Dylan Leadley-Watkins. Number Six (2014) is about contemporary youth culture including photographs of skateboarders and graffiti artists Number Thirteen (2020) collects work from previous projects in London, Paris and Berlin in 2018/19.

• Writers. Self-published, 2012. Edition of 200 copies.
• Anti-Skateboarding Devices. Self-published, 2012. Edition of 50 copies.
• Second edition. Self-published, 2014.{{cite news|access-date=2021-10-23|title=Anti-skateboarding architecture – in pictures|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2014/jun/13/anti-skating-board-architecture-in-pictures|newspaper=The Guardian|date=13 June 2014|issn=0261-3077}}
• Documenting Dylan. Self-published, 2013. Edition of 50 copies.
• Number Four. Self-published, 2013. Edition of 50 copies.
• Millbank and that Van. Southport: Café Royal, 2014. Edition of 150 copies.
• Second edition. Southport: Café Royal, 2020. With a new cover and layout. Edited by Craig Atkinson. Edition of 250 copies.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-26|title=How the 2010 student protests radicalised me|url=https://www.huckmag.com/perspectives/how-the-2010-student-protests-radicalised-me/|date=9 December 2020|website=Huck Magazine}}
• Queer. Self-published, 2014. Edition of 50 copies.
• Number Six. Self-published, 2014. Edition of 200 copies.
• Tiergarten Transgression. Self-published, 2015. Edition of 50 copies.
• Vandals and the City. Self-published, 2016. With a foreword by Oliver Zanetti. Edition of 200 copies.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Documenting London's underground graffiti scene|url=https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/art-2/vandals-city-pictures-londons-underground-graffiti-scene/|date=17 October 2016|website=Huck Magazine}}
• The Graffiti Trucks of Paris. Self-published, 2017. With a foreword by Oli Mould. Edition of 100 copies.
• Documenting Thierry. Self-published, 2017. With a foreword by Thierry Schaffauser. Edition of 200 copies.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=友人目線でとらえた「クィアセックスワーカーの素顔」ある若者のフツウの日々『Documenting Thierry』|url=https://heapsmag.com/zine-documenting-thierry-queer-sex-worker-photo-document|date=16 November 2017|website=heapsmag.com}}
• The Graffiti Trucks of London. Self-published, 2018. With a foreword by Theo Kindynis. Edition of 200 copies.
• Down and Up in Paris. Self-published, 2019. With a foreword by Rachel Segal Hamilton. Edition of 200 copies.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=down and up in paris|url=https://tankmagazine.com/?articleUrl=tank/2019/03/marc-vallee|website=Tank Magazine}}
• Number Thirteen. Self-published, 2020. With a foreword by Alexander Clay. Edition of 200 copies.{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=Photographer Marc Vallée's new book challenges the forces dividing our cities|url=https://hero-magazine.com//article/168699/marc-vallee-the-photographers-gallery|website=Hero}}
• When I was at Art School in the 90s. Self-published, 2020. With an essay by Jamie Atherton. Edition of 200 copies.
• 90s Archive: Volume One. Self-published, 2022. Edition of 400 copies.{{cite web|access-date=2022-12-01|title=Marc Vallée's hedonistic photos of 90s queer London|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/57413/1/marc-vallee-indie-sleaze-90s-archive-london|date=10 November 2022|website=Dazed}}

• Long Live Southbank. London: Heni, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-992926-80-9}}.
• London Nights. London: Hoxton Mini Press. 2018. {{ISBN|978-1-910566-34-3}}. With essays by Anna Sparham and poetry by Inua Ellams. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of London.

• London Nights, Museum of London, London, 2018. Included 2 prints and the Vandals and the City zine.{{cite news|first1=Alexandra|last1=Sims|access-date=2021-10-23|title=6 photos to see at the new 'London Nights' exhibition|url=https://www.timeout.com/london/news/6-photos-to-see-at-the-new-london-nights-exhibition-050818|website=Time Out London}}
• No Comply: Skate Culture and Community, Somerset House, London, 2021{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=No Comply|url=https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/no-comply|date=7 April 2021|website=Somerset House}}{{cite web|access-date=2021-10-24|title=No Comply, Somerset House, London, 2021.|url=https://marcvallee.co.uk/No-Comply-Somerset-House|website=marcvallee.co.uk}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|marcvallee.co.uk}}

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Category:British documentary photographers

Category:Alumni of London Guildhall University

Category:British LGBTQ photographers

Category:Living people

Category:1968 births