Leila Alaoui

Leila Alaoui (10 July 1982 – 18 January 2016) was a French–Moroccan photographer and video artist. She worked as a commercial photographer for magazines and non-governmental organizations and completed assignments on refugees. Her work was exhibited widely and is held in the collection of Qatar Museums. Alaoui died from injuries suffered in a 2016 terrorist attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Life and work

Alaoui was born in Paris to a Moroccan father and a French mother, and grew up in Marrakesh, Morocco. During her childhood and adolescence, she was regularly exposed to tragic stories of migrants drowning at sea while undertaking hazardous journeys, which she interpreted as stories of social injustice. When Alaoui turned 18, she moved to New York City to study photography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She also attended Hofstra University from 2000 to 2003. Alaoui felt that studying in the United States allowed her to become "even more exposed to questions of belonging and identity construction". She returned to Morocco in 2008.

Alaoui believed that photography and art could be used for social activism, and should be used for "reflecting and questioning society". As a result, she chose to focus her work on social and national realities of cultural identity and diversity, migration and displacement. To do this, she used image creation, reports and studio video installations. One of her commonly used techniques was to set up a portable studio in a public place such as a market square and to invite interested passers-by to be photographed. Alaoui stated that her inspiration for this type of portrait photography came from Robert Frank's portrayal of Americans in the post-war era, such as in The Americans (1958). Alaoui often emphasizes her subjects, minimizing the background of some of her portraits.