Photographer Guylaine Couttolenc is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Inner-Façades’. To see Guylaine ’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Artist Statement

In the Inner-Façades series, I portray a variety of chairs placed within distinct settings. Each scene is shaped by an emotion I experienced at different stages of my life. Through a carefully chosen palette of blues, oranges, and whites, and a shallow depth of field, I create images that evoke a range of sensations — from serenity and lightness to vulnerability, or the quiet feeling of floating, of contemplation, of sinking…

The chair serves as a symbolic extension of the body — or as the emotional space each person might inhabit. I’m drawn to the idea that the viewer can see themselves reflected in it, recognizing something intimate and personal. With compositions that are both intentional and sincere, I aim to build a bridge between image and emotion — an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the inner world.

Biography

Born in Mexico City (1973) and based in the city of Queretaro, Guylaine Couttolenc has been an artistic and commercial photographer for 30 years. She studied photography at the Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo, the Kodak School, the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and at the Speos School of Photography in Paris.

She has studied the Master of Fine Arts in Photography program, Cum Laude, at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, USA.

Guylaine has been teaching photography at the ITESM University in the city of Queretaro for 18 years, evaluated as the best teacher for several years.

She has participated in numerous exhibitions including a solo exhibition and 20 group exhibitions in the United States, Mexico and Japan. In 2017, she was selected as an invited artist at the UPA Gallery in the United States. In June 2025, she was selected by Isolart Gallery to take part in a group exhibition in Villa Trossi. Livorno, Italy.

Guylaine has won several international awards and distinctions: Arte Joven (FONCA), gold medal in the Photographic Salon of Japan, gold medal in the ND Awards, silver medal in The Annual Photo Awards and honorable mention in the Tokyo International Festival Awards.

She worked at the photo library of the Academia of San Carlos, at Lowe&Partners advertising Agency and at Time Expansion Inc as photographic editor for Quien Magazine. She was the founder and director of Banco Mexicano de Imágenes (BMI), one of the leading image banks in Mexico.

Her stock photography is represented by Getty Images.

All images and text © Guylaine Couttolenc