Omar Victor Diop
Location: Paris, FranceClients: Louis Vuitton, MOMA, Lavazza, Lancel, Pernod Ricard, Jonak Shoes, Thames & Hudson
Regarded as one of the most important Senegalese photographers of his generation, Omar Victor Diop was born in Dakar in 1980 and was brought up there. He now divides his time between his birthplace and Paris.
From a very early age, Diop cultivated his vivid imagination as much through photography as through literature and history, leading him to hone his talent in several art forms, from collage and creative writing to fashion and textile design. His influences include the major African portrait artists Mama Casset, Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, the French creator Jean-Paul Goude, as well as several Flemish and Spanish painters of the Renaissance.
An invitation to take part in the ninth edition of the Pan-African photography biennial Rencontres de Bamako (Bamako Encounters), held in 2011 in Mali, marked the true beginning of Diop’s professional career as a photographer.
Diop’s work is now part of major institutions collections — such as the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Brooklyn Museum in the United States, the Musée de la Photographie de Saint-Louis in Senegal — and has been shown in exhibitions at high-profile international events, such as Paris Photo and the Rencontres d’Arles in France, the New York edition of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair and Kyotographie in Japan. His images also appear regularly in magazines around the world, among them Harper’s Bazaar, Spanish Vogue and Madame Figaro. In addition, as an art director, Diop has led campaigns for many clients, such as Lavazza, Lancel and Pernod Ricard. His first monograph, Omar Victor Diop, was published by 5 Continents Editions in 2021, followed by a travel book with Louis Vuitton Editions.
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Thandiwe Muriu
Location: Nairobi, KenyaClients: Adidas, Christian Dior, Nespresso, Longchamp, Swatch, Bic, Oribe, The United Nations, Labo M, Swiss Red Cross
Thandiwe Muriu is a Kenyan artist known for creating surreal illusions in a unique mix of vibrant textiles, cultural practices, and beauty ideologies. Working with the kitenge fabric, a distinct African cloth, she makes her subjects both disappear and serve as a canvas of reflection to the questions of womanhood, identity and its evolution over time. Her illusions are completed by handmade accessories, constructed from reimagined objects associated with Kenyan daily life. Merging history and the present, Muriu pairs each work with an African proverb, expressing the collected oral wisdom of generations past even as she communicates culture in a visual form.
Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Thandiwe discovered photography at age 14, experimenting with her father's old Nikon camera. Self-taught, she immersed herself in books and video tutorials, learning from every resource she could find, as Kenya did not have any formal photography schools. By age 17, she was working professionally, and by 23 had shot her first solo advertising campaign. By 2019, she was photographing campaigns for some of the largest companies in East Africa.
As the sole woman operating in the male-dominated advertising photography industry in Kenya, Thandiwe repeatedly confronted questions around the role of women in society, the place of tradition, and her own self-perception. These experiences inspired her first work, the Camo series, a project of cultural reflection. Camo was the catalyst for her to push new boundaries in her photography, leading her into a deeply personal artistic journey.
Even though she is still a young artist, Thandiwe is a rising star of contemporary photography. Her works are part of significant museum and public collections like Collection Gervanne + Matthias Leridon, Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, and UHODA Collection, as well as being a Rockefeller Foundation Residency alumni, among others.
She currently resides in Nairobi, Kenya where she teaches workshops and regularly travels for assignments.
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Ray Neutron
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USClients: Apple, Airbnb, Pepsi, ESPN, Under Armour, Jack White, BBCICECREAM, Rocnation, Reach Records, Wolf & Shepherd
Ray “Neutron” Spears is an image-maker based in Atlanta who is devoted to showing stories rather than telling them. Through motion and still imagery he captures authentic and ephemeral scenes, oft-described as “cinematic documentary”. Past clients include Apple, Jack White, Pepsi, ESPN, BBCICECREAM, Under Armour and more.
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Sarah Burton Fielding
Location: New ZealandSarah Burton Fielding is an Aotearoa - New Zealand based photographer with an intuitive style, focussing on the emotions of the everyday. Favouring rich light, intimacy and analogue techniques to create cinematic moments and explore connection to place.
Sarah has returned home to New Zealand after almost a decade away in London, Berlin and Melbourne. She has exhibited worldwide and been published in publications such as Vogue, the Guardian and Financial Times. She is a two times Portrait of Britain winner. Photographic Museum of Humanity winner and photographed a book written by Alain de Botton for The School of Life London.
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Sasha Maslov
Location: New York, USMaslov (born in Ukraine). After finishing his education he traveled for some time and settled in New York City at the age of 24. Since then he has established himself as a photographer renowned for his work in environmental portraiture and visual storytelling. Maslov has a keen eye for the unnoticed and builds comprehensive visual narratives with his photographs.
His series Veterans: Faces of World War II explores the lives of people who participated in the Second World War across the globe, 70 years later.
He lives in Brooklyn where he has a portrait studio, and spends a lot of time on the road working on stories and developing his own projects.
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InstituteTM (collectively Institute Pictures, Institute Studios, & Institute Artist) is redefining how stories are produced and told in the 21st Century. Founded by Producer Frank Evers and Director/Visual Artist Lauren Greenfield, we are a multiplatform production company representing auteur-driven storytellers across commercials, photography, fine art, film, and technology — and producing original work across every screen that those stories live on. Our multiplatform expertise and established global relationships in entertainment, commercial, fine art, and journalism create unmatched reach and cross-pollination of creative work. A film commission informs a photography campaign; a fine art practice shapes a commercial; an editorial relationship opens a documentary. Few companies operate fluently across all of these worlds. Institute was built this way from the ground up.
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