Omar Victor Diop
OMAR VICTOR DIOP - 1980, Senegal
Diop was born in Dakar, where he still lives and works. Since his early days, he developed an interest in Photography and Design, essentially as a means to capture the diversity of modern African societies and lifestyles. As a member of the well-educated middle-class, Diop went to business school in Paris and first worked in finance as a consultant. Actually, he bought his first camera with one of his bonuses. A friend encouraged him to submit a series called THE FUTURE OF BEAUTY to the 2011 Bamako Biennale, where he was selected and featured. The quick success encouraged Diop to end his career in Corporate Communications and dedicate himself to photography in 2012, and since then he has had several exhibitions in Africa, Europe, and the US with more to come.
His body of work includes Fine Arts and Fashion Photography as well as Advertising Photography. He enjoys mixing his photography with other forms of art, such as costume design, styling, and creative writing. This is particularly visible in his series STUDIO DES VANITÉ, in which he follows his research between photography and design, with a strong influence of the historical African portraitists. The backdrops in the series are textiles from Diop’s mother’s collection, which have been passed on from generation to generation Diop uses the colors and patterns of the textiles to express emotions, an idea of sharpness or poetry or romanticism.
His latest series entitled DIASPORA is a time travel. A journey that takes its starting point in the present with the issue of immigration of Africans in Europe and their place in European society. Diop forces us to reconsider our perception of history by highlighting notable Africans living in Europe between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The integration of elements of football weaves the links between past and present and questions the position of Africans today.
