Stéphane Sednaoui

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Stéphane Sednaoui
Born Paris, France
Occupation Director, photographer, producer
Years active 1981–present

Stéphane Sednaoui (born in Paris, France 27th February 1963) is a French-American photographer, director and producer whose work includes music videos, art projects, photographic essays, portrait photography, fashion photography and photojournalism.

Sednaoui is noted for his inventive visual style and his multi-medium approach. Photo magazine stated in 1991, "Sednaoui has transcended genres, techniques and categories."[1] As a photographer, he has covered events as the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the attack of the World Trade Center. He has collaborated to magazines such as Vogue Italia. Many album covers from Björk to Madonna are his creations, and he has also directed more than 50 music videos for such artists as Massive Attack, Björk, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna and U2. In 2005, Palm Pictures published a retrospective of his work, The Work of Director Stéphane Sednaoui.

Contents

[edit] Background

At age 9, when sneaking at night to watch on television Luis Buñuel's surrealist movie Un Chien Andalou, Stéphane Sednaoui experienced his first visual shock, reacting both with horror and complete fascination. He credits viewing Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey for inspiring him at age 12 to become a director. He also credits Walt Disney's Fantasia for being his ultimate adaptation of music to film influence.

As a teenager in Paris, he spent most of his time in theaters educating himself by watching the countercultural American movies of the 1970s. He studied literature at La Sorbonne and left to start his career.

[edit] Early career

Although Stéphane Sednaoui never received formal training as a photographer-director and never was a photographer's assistant, it is by working with artists who trusted him that he shaped his artistic approach between the ages of 18 and 22: At 18 he started as a casting director for advertising campaigns before passing in front of the camera to become the face of Jean-Paul Gaultier's brand for two years (1982-1984). He then modeled for photographers Steven Meisel and Peter Lindbergh, and for artist Andy Warhol. At 21 he was the casting director of the docufiction movie Mode in France (1985) directed by his mentor photographer-director William Klein and at 22 he experienced being a dancer, part of the French choreographer Régine Chopinot's company for her creation Le Défilé (1985).

All those experiences were meticulously documented then by the young Stéphane and some have been shown recently: his pictures of Chopinot's choreography were exhibited in 2007 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs of the Louvre and his experience with William Klein was published in 2009 as a portfolio in the French contemporary art magazine "Paradis".

[edit] Career

(A presentation of Sednaoui's work in different mediums in chronological order)

[edit] Photographic essays

Stephane's first love for photography was found in the form of Photographic essays by his mentors, William Klein, Robert Frank and Bill Brandt. It is as a photo essayist, from 1981 documenting his life and entourage that Sednaoui initially intended to experiment with photography. His early work was published in art magazines[2] and although his career quickly took off in other fields, it is his continuous dedication to photo-essay that represent the main volume of his archive.[3]

[edit] Portraiture photography

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.

[edit] Fashion photography

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, setting up the ground as a pop culture artist for an explosion of dynamic visuals in the pages of UK magazine The Face two years later. As a fashion photographer 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.

[edit] Pop culture photography

More than his start in the fashion world it was his 1988 explosive contribution debut to the iconic pop culture magazine The Face and Annie Flanders' Details publication (initially an underground magazine) that sets the standard for Stéphane Sednaoui's world. There he experimented his skills further by transcending genres and mixing pop culture with fashion references in an artistic unconventional way. In the hand-made decoupage story Fashion Heroes,[4] Sednaoui photographed designers Jean-Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaia and Vivienne Westwood, alongside the iconic models of that era, creating an epic super heroes adventure that became a reference for many and was given an award by both jury William Klein and Jean-Paul Goude at the 1990 International Photography Festival.[5] Building on his success, Stéphane Sednaoui started creating visuals and albums covers for artists such as Björk,[6] Mick Jagger and Madonna. His energetic style would lead him to direct music videos a few years later. (See chapter below, Music videos)

[edit] Photojournalism

After a successful start of his career in fashion and pop culture publications, Stéphane Sednaoui decided to cover the Romanian Revolution of 1989 (published in French newspaper Libération and UK Arena magazine). Given the solemnity of what he photographed there he faced a dilemma to resume working for glossy magazines once back in Paris. Through the year 1990 Sednaoui flirted with the thought of becoming a war photographer and it is a friend who diverted him from that idea by offering him something he had never done before: directing a music video.

Ten years later when Stéphane Sednaoui photographed and filmed the fall of the twin towers on the September 11 attacks, and then volunteered to search for survivors at Ground Zero's World Trade Center site the same torn feelings hit him again. A special portfolio of this unique document on the rescue at ground zero was published in Talk magazine as well as on the cover of the special issue of French newspaper Libération. Both dramatic events can be seen as milestones in Sednaoui's career, each time provoking new callings.

“ "I think that we all come across those intimate moments where we have the temptation to rethink ourselves for the better, to reset priorities and focus on what really matters. But sometimes they happen to be public traumatic events that one might witness from too close, imposing immediate reassessment on oneself; it occurred twice to me, after photographing the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and then the September 11 attacks."[7] ”


[edit] Music videos

After witnessing the trauma of Romanian Revolution of 1989 a new page was turned in his life. Stéphane Sednaoui then moved to the USA to explore new horizons, he put a halt to photography and started directing.

From the pop culture magazine The Face, it was only natural that he should apply his inventive dynamic approach to music videos. After is first break through in France for NTM (1990) his next success was in the US with the 1992 MTV Video Music Award for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away" (1991) video. He then signed on with Steve Golin's Propaganda Films. His subsequent work has come to be regarded as some of the most memorable of the medium.

Other Sednaoui music videos that received critical acclaim and, for some, MTV Video Music Awards or nominations are, "Mysterious Ways" (U2), "Today" (The Smashing Pumpkins), "Big Time Sensuality" (Björk), "7 Seconds" (Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry), "Queer" (Garbage), "Hell Is Round the Corner" (Tricky), "Ironic" (Alanis Morissette), "Possibly Maybe" (Björk) and "Le Nouveau Western" (MC Solaar).

His work is celebrated in The Work of Director Stephane Sednaoui (2005) from the Directors Label series, a collection of DVDs devoted to the most creative music video directors, along with Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Anton Corbijn, Jonathan Glazer, Chris Cunningham and Mark Romanek.

[edit] Art

Although some of his editorial photography and music videos work are considered by some as art pieces, by 2001 the need to explore further compelled Sednaoui to reevaluate his artistic approach and express himself in a more unaltered and uncensored manner. Moving forward he initiated his own films & photographic projects that he has showed in solo or group exhibitions in New York, Paris, Beijing's Today Art Museum and Shanghai's MOCA.

[edit] Personal life

Stephane Sednaoui credits his grand mother the French writer Danaé Kalder, and whom throughout his childhood he believed to be his grandfather, the abstract painter Pierre-André de Wishes, for shaping his intellectual and artistic mind. His mother was the photographic agent Yannick Morisot, while his aunt is the French-American painter Evelyne Morisot and his uncle the Jazzman David Earle Johnson.

Sednaoui's grandfather came from Egypt to France, he was from an Orthodox Christian family that finds its roots in the city of Sednaya, Syria and who migrated to Egypt at the end of the 19th century. The now decayed Sednaoui department store of Cairo was once the middle eastern counterpart of those known in London, Paris and New York.[8]

Stephane Sednaoui lives in Paris and New York.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Short films

  • "Acqua Natasa" (director, producer) (2002)
  • "Walk On the Wild Side" (director, producer) (2005) A 10 minute film based on Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side" which featured several well-known New York nightlife figures such as Charles Winters and a variety of drag queens.
  • "Army of Me" (director, producer) (2005) An animation based on Björk's song "Army of Me".

[edit] Music videos

[edit] Compilations

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Expériences" portfolio in Photo magazine, May 1991.
  2. ^ "Expériences" portfolio in Photo magazine, May 1991
  3. ^ bio in www.stephane sednaoui.com site
  4. ^ The Face magazine, January 1990
  5. ^ The original International Festival of Fashion Photography that occurred from 1989 to 1994
  6. ^ Post, 1995
  7. ^ bio in www.stephane sednaoui.com site
  8. ^ http://www.touregypt.net/egypt-info/magazine-mag03012001-mag10.htm

[edit] External links

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