Hedi Slimane: Fashion Designer Turned Photographer at Almine Rech Shanghai

Hedi Slimane, born in 1968 in Paris's 19th arrondissement to an Italian mother and Tunisian father, received his first camera at age 11 and learned to develop black-and-white film. He kept a visual diary through photography while also drawing and sewing clothes as a teenager. After earning a degree in art history from the École du Louvre, he was hired at age 28 by Pierre Bergé, CEO of Yves Saint Laurent, as menswear designer. He later moved to Dior, leaving in 2007 to become a full-time photographer. His first photobook, produced in 2003 in Berlin, documented the city's club scene, commissioned by Klaus Biesenbach (now at MoMA). He then moved to London to capture mid-2000s indie-rock spirit, and settled in Los Angeles in 2007, proclaiming it his photographic muse. His solo exhibition 'Sun of Sound' runs until April 30, 2021, at Almine Rech Gallery in Shanghai, founded by Almine Rech-Picasso in 1997 in Paris, with locations in New York, London, and Brussels. The show features works from his 'Sonic' series, portraits of musicians like Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Jean-Luc Godard, Pete Doherty, Brian Wilson, and Amy Winehouse, as well as earlier 'Berlin' series. An immersive sound installation reconstructs The Libertines as reliquaries. Slimane's visual language combines minimal black-and-white photography with documentation of bands and everyday life.