Stéphane Sednaoui

Stéphane Sednaoui (French: [steˈfan sednaˈwi]) is a French music video director, photographer, film producer and actor. He has worked in various forms of media, including music videos, photojournalism, portrait photography, fashion and pop culture.

Stéphane Sednaoui
Born (1963-02-27) 27 February 1963
Paris, France
Occupation(s)Director, photographer, producer
Years active1981–present

Sednaoui's career began as a casting director for advertising campaigns and modeling for photographers and artists at age 18. At age 21, he began doing portraits for various publications, later photographing designers and models. Sednaoui has directed over 40 music videos, including "Give It Away" and "Scar Tissue" (Red Hot Chili Peppers), "Sly" (Massive Attack), "Mysterious Ways" (U2), "Big Time Sensuality" (Björk), "Fever" (Madonna), "German Bold Italic" (Towa Tei feat. Kylie Minogue), and "Queer" (Garbage). As a photojournalist he covered such events as the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the 2001 September 11 attack of the World Trade Center. He has also been a regular contributor to Vogue Italia, Vogue China, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Interview and Visionaire as a fashion and portrait photographer.

Over the years, Sednaoui has redefined his artistic approach to focus on his fine-art and cinematographic projects. New and existing work have been exhibited recently at the MoMA, New York (2015)– the National September 11 Memorial & Museum (2013–2015), New York – the Brooklyn Museum, New York (2013 – the (Barbican Center, London (2014) – Le Grand Palais, Paris (2015)– the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2014) and in a solo exhibition at the Sam Art Projects Foundation, Paris (2013).

In 2005, his work with music videos was included in Palm Pictures's Directors Label, a series of DVDs compiling the work of notable music video directors.

Early career

Although Sednaoui never received formal training as a photographer or director, it was with the support of two major artists, William Klein and Jean-Paul Gaultier, 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). Through this collaboration he modeled for photographers Steven Meisel and Peter Lindbergh, and for artist Andy Warhol and William Klein. At 21 he was offered by his mentor photographer-director William Klein to be the casting director of the docufiction movie Mode in France (1985). At 22 he was a dancer in the French choreographer Régine Chopinot's creation: Le Défilé (1985), for which Jean-Paul Gaultier was collaborating by creating the costumes.

The Jean-Paul Gaultier, William Klein, and Regine Chopinot collaborations were documented by Sednaoui and shown years later: his pictures of Gaultier-Chopinot 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 magazine "Paradis".

Career

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

Photographic essays

Impregnated with the most experimental side of his masters’ work, William Klein, Robert Frank, Bill Brandt, Sednaoui's first photographic projects were in the form of abstract Photographic essays. [1]

Portraits, pop culture, fashion, and photography

Portraiture: Sednaoui's first editorial assignment was 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.

Pop Culture: He then began contributing to pop culture magazine The Face and Annie Flanders' Details publication (initially an underground magazine founded by Annie Flanders) in 1988. There he mixed pop culture with fashion references. In the hand-made decoupage story Fashion Heroes,[2] Sednaoui photographed designers Jean-Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaia and Vivienne Westwood, alongside the models of that era, the story was awarded by William Klein and Jean-Paul Goude.[3] Sednaoui started creating visuals and album covers for artists such as Björk, Mick Jagger and Madonna.

Fashion: In parallel to his start in Pop Culture, Franca Sozzani gave Sednaoui his first fashion assignment for the Italian magazine Per Lui and later for Vogue Italia. Sednaoui's initial approach of fashion was energetic and sometimes cartoonish like in his Pop Culture images. A more narrative cinematic approach will emerge in 2000 naturally influenced by his years as a music video director. During this period Sednaoui was a regular contributor to Vogue Italia, French Numéro, Vogue China, and Visionaire.

Photojournalism

He photographed the Romanian Revolution of 1989 (published in French newspaper Libération and UK Arena magazine). Ten years later he photographed and filmed the fall of the twin towers on the September 11 attacks and joined the search and rescue teams at Ground Zero during the following days (the following weeks a portfolio was published in Talk magazine and was the cover of a special issue of French newspaper Libération. In September 2011 Time magazine published a complete portfolio on its website). The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has dedicated an entire room to Sednaoui's images. The book Search and Rescue at Ground Zero was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2014. In her foreword Alice M. Greenwald the director of the museum wrote: "We are indebted to Stéphane Sednaoui, who felt compelled – not as a photographer but as a human being – to rush down, that afternoon, to what would soon come to be known as Ground Zero, hoping to volunteer in the search and rescue efforts underway".

Music videos

After his breakthrough in France with a video for the French rap band NTM (1990), Sednaoui moved to the US where his video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away" (1991) won an award at the 1992 MTV Video Music Award.

Other Sednaoui music videos that were nominated or received MTV Video Music Awards are, "Sleep to Dream" (Fiona Apple), "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), "GBI: German Bold Italic" (Towa Tei featuring Kylie Minogue) and "Le Nouveau Western" (MC Solaar).

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

By end of 2001, excepted on rare occasions, Sednaoui stopped directing music videos.

Art

Over the years Sednaoui has redefined his artistic approach to focus on his fine-art and cinematographic projects. New and existing work have been exhibited recently at the MoMA, New York (2015)– the 9/11 Memorial Museum (2013–2015), New York – the Brooklyn Museum, New York (2013 – the Barbican Center, London (2014) – Le Grand Palais, Paris (2015)– the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2014) and Sam Art Projects Foundation, Paris (2013).

Acting

Sednaoui prominent roles are, in G.H.B. (2013) playing opposite Marina Hands, directed by Laetitia Masson; and in Samui Song (2016) playing opposite Laila Boonyasak and Vithaya Pansringarm, directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

Personal life

His mother was the photographic agent Yannick Morisot and his uncle the jazzman David Earle Johnson.

He was in relationships with singers Björk and Kylie Minogue with whom he also collaborated artistically.[4][5] In October 2001, Laetitia Casta gave birth to their daughter Sahteene.

Sednaoui lives in Paris and New York. His Egyptian-born grandfather came from a Melkite Greek Catholic family of Syrian descent. The family finds its roots in the city of Sednaya in Syria, which is where the surname originates from. The Sednaoui family migrated to Egypt at the end of the 19th century and developed successful department stores in Cairo. These were once considered the Middle Eastern counterpart of the famous department stores known in London, Paris and New York.

Filmography

Short films
  • "Acqua Natasa" (2002)
  • "Walk on the Wild Side" (2005) A 10-minute film based on Lou Reed's song "Walk on the Wild Side".
  • "Army of Me" (2005) An animation based on Björk's song "Army of Me".
  • 'Clues: The Mother of My Death" (2014)

Music videos
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2003
  • "Anti-matter" by Tricky
2009
2014

Books
  • Search and Rescue at Ground Zero, Kehrer Verlag, (2014) ISBN 978-3868285147

Compilations

References
  1. "Expériences" portfolio in Photo magazine, May 1991
  2. The Face magazine, January 1990
  3. The original International Festival of Fashion Photography that occurred from 1989 to 1994
  4. Delaney, Sam (23 September 2005). "Final cut is the deepest". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  5. Conrad, Peter (9 July 2006). "Now for the real Kylie ..." The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
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