Skip to main content
Almine Rech

Hedi Slimane

Hedi Slimane has achieved global recognition over the past decade for his discovery and presentation of emerging musicians and artists. His publications on London youth are among the first books published about the early days of the new British punk-rock movement at the beginning of this decade, capturing the birth of the first generation of Internet users, and redefining the concept of “fans” as an indie youth imagery that has developed globally through emerging social networks. Slimaneʼs widely followed photographic diary, created in 2006, established and popularized an entirely new genre—the online photo diary.  

Hedi Slimane settled in Los Angeles in 2007, a move which considerably strengthened his long-standing interest in California’s arts scene and culture. California Song spans the photographer’s California period and traces his explorations of cycles of urban youth culture and artistic communities, through installations of photographic essays, exhibitions, and publications.

Slimane has invented a new and oblique visual language to represent youth and reinvent the rock documentary. In his work, live performance is reduced to a minimal, photographic lexicon—a ritual black-and-white convention of signs. Still life photographs become almost liturgical—a singular, silent expression of youth.

Gallery exhibitions

Selected press