Marrakech – Yves Saint Laurent museum in Marrakech (mYSLm) is set to host the first Moroccan exhibition dedicated to the groundbreaking American photographer David Seidner (1957–1999).
It started Sept. 15, and will run until Aug. 2 of next year in the museum’s temporary exhibition gallery.
The exhibition shines a spotlight on the exceptional partnership between Seidner and the legendary couturier Yves Saint Laurent.
Their collaboration began in 1982, culminating in iconic projects such as the 1983 Paris perfume advertising campaign, which remains a landmark in the history of fashion photography.
Seidner’s sensitive and visionary approach captured the essence of Saint Laurent’s style, blending elegance with a modern artistic sensibility.
More than twenty-five years after his passing, David Seidner’s work continues to influence contemporary fashion photography.
Drawing inspiration from classical portraiture and the great masters of antiquity, Seidner’s images combine refined light, inventive framing, and bold fragmentation, creating a unique aesthetic that defined fashion imagery in the 1980s, 1990s, and beyond.
The exhibition is curated by Violeta Sanchez, a former Saint Laurent model and one of Seidner’s favorite collaborators.
Sanchez worked closely with the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris and New York’s International Center of Photography (ICP) to craft a faithful and insightful presentation of Seidner’s oeuvre.
A detailed catalog accompanies the exhibition, featuring essays by Marc Donnadieu, Samia Saouma, Violeta Sanchez, Olivier Saillard, and Robert McElroy, with a preface by the late Pierre Bergé, originally written for Seidner’s 2008 Paris exhibition.
The volume offers an informed exploration of the artist’s work and era, emphasizing the lasting artistic significance of his photography.
Born in Los Angeles in 1957, David Seidner moved to Paris at seventeen to pursue photography. By nineteen, he was already photographing magazine covers, and his first solo exhibition took place in 1978.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, his work appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, earning him recognition as one of the most original voices in international photography.
