Ismail Zaidy, photographer from Morocco. Photography © Igmirien

1.Tell us what you do and your beginnings.

I’m a photographer from Morocco. I started photography as a regular hobby, by taking pictures of any beautiful thing crossed my way, but in a certain moment I realized that I should find a visual identity that print my style, and I find my way in taking pictures with my siblings in our roof with our vision of photography.

2.What are your favorite museums in the world? Why?

In Morocco we still have a big gap between art and society, we don’t have a lot of museums even if we have a real rich culture, but musumes are few. In my life I only visited museum of photography, located in Rabat, because they shared my work there, and I really like it as a new experience of exhibiting art. In other hand I can say that internet is a good alternative for exhibitions and in internet you can reach to a huge audience.

3.How important are social networks in your business? And which platform do you prefer and why.

As I said before, social network is an 24/7 exhibition for any artist and that’s really great especially for artists who can’t afford to produce their own shows. For me I prefer Instagram, because it contacts you with audience that love art and search for it.

4.What are your future projects? 

Now, I’m planning to add more pictures to my serie “Family”, also I’m working on a project of photos serie named “Hope” and there is a lot of coming projects but I cant talk about them until I confirm them.

5.To create greater engagement among museums, artists and professionals, do you have any advice for cultural projects such as #MuseumWeek?

Big museums don’t want to take the risk and they always work with the ready made artist, with all my due respect for them but i think that we should take care of the new wave of artists. The future of art is in the hands of youth even if they lack experience but are ambitious.

Interview by Fabio Pariante, journalist

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Ismail Zaidy on social networks: Instagram – Twitter

Ismail Zaidy (Marrakech, 1997) is a self-taught Moroccan artist and photographer. His photographs are minimal and impactful that tell the Arab culture and in particular the Moroccan one, through the places and the architecture, but above all through the typical clothes of his country: djellaba, niqab and hijabI.

The silence of the places, the poetry of the gestures of the models and the contrasts of strong colors, complete a photographic story that eliminates the concept of cultural difference. Zaidy finds particular inspiration from his background, his friends and family and in 2018 he won the Instagram Account of the Year at the Maroc Web Awards, considered to be the largest web-based competition held in the MENA region. To take the photos, the artist uses only his mobile phone.