Souleymane Bachir Diaw

Photographer

Souleymane Bachir Diaw is a Senegalese director and photographer living in France. He, initially, is a microelectronic and computer science engineer. As a self-taught photographer, he found in this medium a way to express, experiment and tell the realities he lives. He uses it as a tool for personal transformation and also transmission. It represents a starting point to open discussions and bring people at the same table. His practice was then first based on the process of self-understanding. Through self-portraits and staged scenes, he explores the self and all the surrounding ecosystems. Therefore, he focuses on people, their relationships with their environments and the way they live their realities. He aims to create experiences. He believes in the human capacity of creation from which result our perception of reality and the experience of the moments we live. It’s the reason why his work aims to represent an ongoing process involving the multiple realities interpreted through multiple references. Actually, his scientific and technical background lead him to approach things in academical and methodical ways.   Furthermore, it influences his will to give importance to the role of perspective and references in the realities perception. Through visual elements, he expresses what can’t feel through the use of words. Emotions are encapsulated into his images in order to bring people into moments of reflection and discovery.