Stéphane Sednaoui

Stéphane Sednaoui is a French photographer, director and producer whose work includes art projects, music videos, photographic essays, portrait photography, fashion photography and photojournalism.

Stephane's first interest for photography was found in the form of Photographic essays made by his mentors, William Klein, Robert Frank and Bill Brandt. It is as a photo essayist that Sednaoui early work was published in art and photo magazines and although his career took off in other fields, it is his continuous dedication to photo-essay that represent the main volume of his archive.

Sednaoui's first editorial assignment was in 1985 at age 21 when he was offered to do portraits for UK Tatler magazine and then for French newspaper Libération. He has since collaborated with many magazines, among them: Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Interview and the French newspaper Le Monde. He is noted for his choice of forceful characters such as Charlotte Gainsbourg, Courtney Love, Hilary Swank, Salma Hayek, Björk, Sofia Coppola, Robert Mitchum and Javier Bardem.

At age 22, Franca Sozzani gave Sednaoui his first fashion assignment (1986) for the Italian magazine Per Lui. Sednaoui's initial approach of fashion was energetic and sometimes cartoonish. A more narrative cinematic fashion approach will emerge in 2000; naturally influenced by his years as a music video director. It is again Franca Sozzani who invited Sednaoui to contribute this time to Vogue Italia. Sednaoui has been also a regular contributor of French Numéro, Vogue China, and Visionaire.

More than his start in the fashion world it was his 1988 contribution debut to the iconic pop culture magazine The Face and Annie Flanders' Details publication (initially an underground magazine) that sets the ground for Stéphane Sednaoui's world. There he experimented by transcending genres, mixing pop culture with fashion references. In the hand-made decoupage story Fashion Heroes, Sednaoui photographed designers Jean-Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaia and Vivienne Westwood, alongside the iconic models of that era, creating an epic super heroes adventure which was awarded by both jury William Klein and Jean-Paul Goude at the 1990 International Photography Festival. During the same period Stéphane Sednaoui started creating visuals and albums covers for artists such as Björk, Mick Jagger and Madonna. His style would lead him to direct music videos a few years later.

Since 2001 Sednaoui has showed his art films & photographic projects in solo or group exhibitions in New York, Paris, Beijing's Today Art Museum and Shanghai's MOCA.