Hassan Hajjaj

Canon Ambassador Hassan Hajjaj's creative output – a blend of photography, design, fashion, music and filmmaking – knows no bounds.

The British-Moroccan artist gained critical acclaim for his iconic series Kesh Angels, featuring Marrakesh's biker girls posing in heart-shaped sunglasses, brightly patterned djellaba robes and veils adorned with Nike swooshes. His colourful Pop Art portraiture, influenced by the culture, style and characters of Marrakesh and London, is held in major collections around the world.

It wasn't until the late 1990s that Hassan started exhibiting his images in London and Marrakesh, beginning with the series Graphix from the Souk. "Growing up, my friends and I were too scared to go to galleries, museums, spaces like that," he explains. "I didn't think of what I was doing as art at first, so to accept myself as an artist and see if this could be a long-term thing, I decided in 2000 to do it full-time."

When Hassan showed his unseen negatives and contact sheets to art curator Rose Issa, he says that she looked at them and said, "You know you have about 10 years' worth of shows here?"

Over the past two decades, Hassan's photography career has snowballed. Along with having major solo shows at London's Somerset House and Paris' Maison Européenne de la Photographie, he has published two books: Photography, Fashion, Film, Design, and Dakka Marrakesh. He has also completed commissions for Vogue and Vanity Fair, and moved into filmmaking with the feature Karima: A Day in the Life of a Henna Girl and a video installation of his series My Rock Stars. To top it all off, he has continued his fashion design work through his label, Andy Wahloo.

In the pipeline is a documentary about Gnawa musicians, whom he's been photographing for 24 years. "While I have the energy, I'll keep shooting, keep travelling. And when I get to the stage when I'd rather look back, I'll have lots of work to show," Hassan says.

In your creative process, what's the balance between planning and spontaneity?

"I do a lot of planning. I have to look for locations and then I sit down and sketch the scene. I'm always trying to make the exterior shoots feel like a scene from a film. I want the viewer to wonder what's going to happen next. Then there's the outfits – I have to buy the fabric, take it to a local tailor in Marrakesh to have it made – so there's a long journey to get the image."


What sparks the idea for a portrait?

"Normally it's the sitter, but it could be a textile or a backdrop – anything. For example, a few weeks ago I saw some shopping bags with black and white pictures of Arab actors and actresses. I had a suit made out of them which I'll use if I'm photographing an actor. I have hundreds of outfits I've designed in my shop in London. It's like an artist in the studio with his paints. You have 100 colours and you might only use five but the others are there, ready for when you need them."


What do you do to create a good atmosphere on a studio portrait shoot?

"When I set up the studio, it's like I'm setting up a stage, and when I dress the sitter up, it's immediately like they're a character in a performance. I'm lucky because most of the people I photograph are musicians or artists, so they already have an attitude that they bring with them. Then I put on music and we flow with the energy between the sitter and myself."


How does music influence your images?

"I grew up with a lot of musicians around me. In the 1980s I was running clubs and I had a record shop. That feeds into your spirit and mind and blood and becomes normal to you. If I'm shooting with a musician, we might put on their music. I'll be shooting along with the rhythm of the beat while the sitter is posing to the rhythm of the beat. The work has that frequency within it."

Hassan Hajjaj