Marcela Bellini was born in Cali, Colombia, and has been a photographer since her adolescence. She enrolled at the Universidad de Los Andes in 1993 to study philosophy, where she found a profound connection that gave meaning to her images.
Subsequently, she earned a master’s degree in literature, which led her to integrate a poetic narrative into her artistic work. Her specialization in journalism refined her perception of reality, enriching her vision as a photographer.
Her first exhibition, Stories in Sepia, took place in 2013. This photographic series, printed in sepia and between acrylic sheets, invited viewers to complete the sentences carried by the titles and, therefore, the narrative of each image, creating a symbiosis between literature and photography. Despite this, Bellini felt that she had not yet found her own artistic language.
In 2014, she presented <b>Nobody</b> at the Sincronía Art Fair in Bogotá, featuring black and white photographs printed on adhesive vinyl. This series marked a significant discovery: many of the photographed places were perfect for an encounter, but they were devoid of people.
Bellini continued exploring this theme with Nobody II. In 2015 she was invited to Casa Proartes in Cali by the renowned curator Miguel González. With her black and white photographs, where the absence of people is a constant, Bellini found her personal and profound way of showing the world.
The poetic images of her work turned absence into melancholy and melancholy into a question about being and existence.
“Melancholy is the most legitimate of poetic tones…”, says Edgar Allan Poe.
From this point on, her work found its unique narrative tone, which she called NOBODY PHOTOGRAPHY.
Bellini, not only tells stories through her images, she prints in unconventional materials, giving her work an installation character. Her first series were on vinyl, followed by materials like silk, canvas, and aluminum.
In 2017, she was invited to Paris with her series Nobody in Italy, Labyrinth, composed of diptychs printed on silk that created dreamlike worlds and played with the viewer’s perception.
In 2019, she presented A Conversation between Asia and the West, a series of diptychs printed on canvas that established a visual dialogue between photographs taken in China and in Western cities such as Paris or New York. This series continued exploring the absence of people while highlighting similarities and differences between cultures.
In 2021, during her artist residency in Mompox, Colombia, Marcela created Magical Realism. In this series, her photographs capture places in this colonial town along the Magdalena River. Through wrought iron locks typical of Mompox houses, different locations of the town are revealed. The series also includes images of the Magdalena River, highlighting its beauty and exuberance.
She presented New York Oneiric in 2025; a photographic exploration of New York City suspended between reality and dream. The series was inspired by a phrase from the writer Paul Auster: “The place is New York, the time is the present, and neither will ever change,” from his book The New York Trilogy. This series delves into the timeless and enigmatic nature of New York. A place that feels familiar and unattainable, solid and yet full of mystery.
Her latest artwork is The Water’s Path; a new photographic project developed in Colombia and composed of two parts: Páramo and Pacific. Páramo was created in the Chilí–Barragán páramo, in the mountains of Sevilla, Valle del Cauca, while Pacific gathers images captured along the Pacific coast of Valle del Cauca, in areas near Buenaventura: Juanchaco, Ladrilleros, and La Barra. In this new series, Marcela deepens a visual narrative in which landscape and water become poetic axes of contemplation, balance, and fragility.
