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MEHDI SEFRIOUI
The Winter Fashion Issue '21
Written by: MICHAEL DAKS
MEHDI SEFRIOUI
PHOTO CREDITS MEHDI SEFRIOUI
This Moroccan-born photographer found fame on the streets of Paris before returning to Tangiers to help redefine how African fashion and fine art photography are perceived by the world at large.
Mehdi Sefrioui was born in Tangiers in 1988 before moving to Paris to study for an MA in Business in 2010. Walking the streets of Paris with a camera, he began recording his new life and environment. “Just to get some oxygen away from the business school. It was an exutoire, an escape.”
PHOTO CREDITS MEHDI SEFRIOUI
The photography bug bit deep and he began to reconsider his life goals. He only really knew the street photographers like Robert Doiseau and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
He started with the cliche shots of Paris but then, shooting photos of his friends, he began to think more about clothing and styling.
PHOTO CREDITS MEHDI SEFRIOUI
He began working on his technique and finding his own style, which took about two years. He wanted to put some of his own identity into the imagery and to tell a story with his pictures. He began to find clients, but lacked the confidence to really go for it directly as a fully fledged fashion photographer.
PHOTO CREDITS MEHDI SEFRIOUI
After an internship in Paris at the famous Art Partner photographer’s agency, Mehdi began to think about his roots and soon started to meet inspiring designers from Africa.
In 2013, Africa was not marketed the same way that it is now in the art and fashion field. “Because I am kind of stubborn, I thought, I am going to work with them because nobody else is!”
Read more at https://issuu.com/rareluxuryliving/docs/winter_fashion_issue_2021_full_pages/142
