Viviane Sassen

Courtesy We Folk / © Viviane Sassen

Country: Netherlands | Born: 1972

Viviane Sassen was born in 1972 in Amsterdam, and lives and works there. She first studied fashion design followed by photography at Hogeschool voor Kunsten Utrecht and fine art at Ateliers Arnhem. Sassen grew up in East Africa and has been taking photographs on the continent since her first return visit in 2002. Selected solo exhibitions have taken place at Forma in Milan (2009) and Foam in Amsterdam (2008). Sassen was one of six artists selected for the annual New Photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2011. Recent group exhibitions include The Encyclopedic Palace at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013); No Fashion, Please! Photography between Gender and Lifestyle at the Vienna Kunsthalle (2011); Figure and Ground: Dynamic Landscape at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto as part of the Contact Photography Festival (2011); and Six Yards: Guaranteed Dutch Design at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem (2012). In 2007 Sassen received the first prize of the Prix de Rome, and in 2011 she won the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Applied/Fashion/Advertising Photography.

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Selected Work:

Selected Books:

Hot Mirror

Author: Vivian Sassen

Publisher: Prestel

Year: 2018 - Pages: 160

This mid-career retrospective volume focuses on Viviane Sassen's fine art photography, revealing a surrealist undercurrent in her work. Sassen recognizes Surrealism as one of her earliest artistic influences, seen in the uncanny shadows, fragmented bodies, and otherworldly landscapes she captures in her work. In addition to images from the acclaimed series "Umbra," this volume draws from the series "Flamboya," in which she returned to Kenya, "Parasomnia," a dreamlike exploration of sleep, the "Roxane" series, a mutual portrait created with her muse, Roxane Danset, "Of Lotus and Mud," a study of procreation and fecundity, and "Pikin Slee," a journey to a remote village in Suriname. This book features a contextualizing essay and an insightful interview with the artist. Throughout, Sassen emerges as a poetic photographer obsessed with light and shadow and a brilliant technician, who is a master of both vibrant color and muted hues. Selected by Sassen herself from across the last ten years, the images draw on the surrealist strategies of collage and unexpected juxtapositions to give a survey of her practice.

Umbra

Author: Vivian Sassen

Publisher: Prestel

Year: 2015 - Pages: 196

This latest book by Viviane Sassen, one of the world�s most acclaimed photographers, explores the concept of shadow in a series of stunning images. Based on an award-winning exhibition, Viviane Sassen�s new book focuses on a common theme in her photographs: shadow. In this book she leads us through a series of thought-provoking takes on the concept―shadow as metaphor for anxiety and desire; as a symbol of both memory and hope for the future; and as an evocation of imagination and illusion. Sassen�s work is renowned for its deft interplay between realism and abstraction. Here that characteristic emerges in the dramatic use of light, shadow and color, as well as the adroit cropping of images and interventions on the prints. This lovely book brilliantly accentuates Sassen�s contrasting color schemes to reinforce the idea of shadow creating an enthralling tactile and visual experience.

Pikin Slee

Author: Vivian Sassen

Publisher: Prestel

Year: 2014 - Pages: 120

Renowned photographic artist Viviane Sassen's latest body of work was realized in a remote village on the Upper Suriname River. Known for her imaginative approach to fashion photography, Sassen's lens here captures mundane objects, making them appear extraordinary against the background of nature's overwhelming presence. Largely shot in black and white, the informal photos also capture a sense of Sassen's personal connection to the village, which is inhabited by the ancestors of former slaves who escaped Dutch rule.

In and Out of Fashion

Author: Viviane Sassen, Charlotte Cotton and Nanda Van Den Berg

Publisher: Prestel

Year: 2013 - Pages: 250

Following the success of Parasomnia, this major new book focuses on the fashion photography of Viviane Sassen. Bringing together 17 years of work in the fashion world, this eye-catching volume features selections from Sassen's award winning series and campaigns for Stella McCartney, Adidas, Carven, Bergdorf Goodman, MiuMiu, and M Missoni, along with editorials for magazines such as the New York Times Magazine, i-D, Num�ro, Purple, AnOther Magazine, Dazed &Confused, Fantastic Man, and POP. Sassen's intuitive and imaginative style can be flamboyant, contemplative, erotic, and surreal, often simultaneously. This volume includes essays that offer a context for Sassen's work in the history of fashion photography as well as a bibliography of nearly all of her fashion series. The book will be a delight for Sassen's many fans and those eager for inspiration or beautiful escape.

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