Viviane Sassen Combines Surrealism And Fashion

Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen is one of the rare artists who moves between the two worlds of fashion and art. Spending three years of her childhood in a village in Kenya has given her a special and original eye for fashion photography. Alongside her independent work, Sassen is mostly famous for her innovative work with fashion, making campaigns for Miu Miu, Stella McCartney and Louis Vuitton. Sassen`s fashion photography is marked by strength and surrealism, created in close collaboration with a team of stylists, art directors, models and make-up artists. Using graphic shadows and vivid colors, Sassen fabricates images full of symbols and ambiguity. She hides faces in deep shadows or turns them away which allows the viewer to identify with the subject and visualize their own narrative. By showing manipulating and shaping bodies, overlapping limbs and waving hair, Sassen acts like a sculptor using photography as her medium.

“I want to seduce the viewer with a beautiful formal approach and then at the same time, leave something disturbing.”