Wikipedia

Achraf Baznani

Moroccan photographer

Achraf Baznani (born 1 January 1979) is a Moroccan artist, filmmaker and photographer.[1] He was born in Marrakesh.[2][3]

Achraf Baznani holding a light bulb

Biography

change

Baznani got started in photography by chance. He received a Kodak Ektra Compact 250 camera for his birthday as a teen.[2] Baznani is self-taught and has never taken photography classes.[4] He has made several short films and documentaries. These include "Walk" in 2006 and "The Forgotten" in 2007. "The Immigrant" in 2007 received several national and international awards.[5]

Baznani is best known for being the first artist in the Arab world to publish a photo-book based on surreal imagery.[6] Both books, Through My Lens and Inside My dreams, are surreal.[7] Baznani places himself within his photographs of everyday objects, scenes and amusing situations.[8]

His works were featured in various magazines worldwide like PicsArt, National Geographic,[1] Mambo, Photo+, Amateur Photographer, Fotografe Melhor,[9] Digital Photo magazine.

During 2014, he completed his "52 Project Archived 2016-05-14 at the Wayback Machine", a personal mission which he committed to taking a picture every week in a row for a year.

Claim of plagiarism

change

On April 29th, 2015, Joel Robinson, a Canadian photographer, accused Achraf Baznani of plagiarism. His evidence was a long article, published both on his website and petapixel.com, that the Moroccan photographer used his work in a way that amounted to plagiarism.[10][11]

Although Robinson did not mention Baznani by name, the nature of the case was said by Robinson to be as follows. Robinson's originals all had a photo of himself in the middle of a graphic design of some kind. In each case, Baznani removed Robinson's image and replaced it with one of himself.[12]

Achraf Baznani had accused Heretic movie director of plagiarism, posting a side-by-side comparison of his original artwork, which was taken from the newspaper Evening Standard Charles Saatchi’s column, and the Heritic movie poster on his website.[13]

Awards

change

Achraf Baznani has won these awards:

Cinema

change
  • 2006: Best Director: national educational film festival in Casablanca, Morocco.
  • 2007: Best Director: national festival of the education thread in Casablanca, Morocco.
  • 2008: Best Director: national festival of amateur short film Settat, Morocco.[5]
  • 2008: Best Director: national festival of short film creators in Casablanca, Morocco.[5]
  • 2008: Best Director: the short film festival in Nador, Morocco.
  • 2009: Best Director: national Educational Film Festival in Fes, Morocco.
  • 2009: Jury Prize at the International Festival of Short and Documentary Films in Casablanca, Morocco.[14]
  • 2009: First prize in the short film festival in the Arab League.[5]

Photography

change
  • 2015: Best in the show in Park Art Fair International
  • 2015: Merit in Sydney International Exhibition of Photography
  • 2015: 1st Prize in B2zone art contest in Switzerland
  • 2016: Honorable mention in Park Art Fair International [15]
  • 2016: 1st Place Winner – Golden Ribbon in Notindoor photography magazine contest [16]
  • 2016: Golden Orchid Grand Prize
  • 2016: International Prize Colosseo, Roma, Italy [17]

Artistic career

change

Exhibitions

change
 
Achraf Baznani
  • 2024: Don't be a Square, Akka Project, Venezia, Italy [18]
  • 2015 "Colour brust", PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2015: Park Art Fair International 2015, Triberg, Germany
  • 2015: Gallery Globe, Adisson, Texas, USA
  • 2015: Digital Private Exhibition Louvre Museum, Paris, France [19]
  • 2015: My Small World, Solo Exhibition, Marrakesh, Morocco[20]
  • 2016: International Surrealism Now, Coimbra, Portugal [21][22]
  • 2016: Park Art Fair International 2016, Triberg, Germany [15]
  • 2016: Männer, Gräfelfing, Germany [23]
  • 2016: Inside my Dreams, Solo Exhibition, Rabat, Morocco [24]

Art books

change
  • 2014: Through my lens, Art book, ISBN 9781502793386.[7]
  • 2014: Inside my dreams, Art book, ISBN 9781502856586.[25]

Magazine covers

change
  • PH magazine, Canada, issue 42, ISSN 1924-9424.[26]
  • FOTOdigital, Portugal, issue 17
  • Magazine, US, issue 2, ISSN 2378-1998
  • PicsArt, US, issue 15
  • Mambo, Spain, special edition December 2014
  • One Shoot magazine, Mexico, issue 27
  • Zarah magazine, US, October 2014
  • Art Reveal Magazine, Issue 5, Finland, June 2015.[27]
  • Cultura Errante, Mexico, October 2015
  • Artinzene, Issue 4, New Zealand, November 2015
  • Knack magazine, Issue 31
  • Convex Photography Magazine - February 2016, India

Movies

change
  • 2006: Marche
  • 2007: Emigrant
  • 2009: Eyes

References

change
  1. ↑ Mark Go (24 September 2014). "The mind bending surreal photography of Achraf Baznani". Resource Magazine. Archived from the original on 20 July 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kaiak Wen (31 July 2014). "Surrealism photography by Achraf Baznani – part1". Kock Magazine. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "Famosos nacidos el 1 de enero de 1979". okcumple. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  4. ↑ Rachel Oakley (20 February 2015). "Mind-Bending Photographic Art from Achraf Baznani". New Art. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Tazi (13 November 2013). "ACHRAF BAZNANI: SURRÉALISME QUAND TU ME TIENS!". illi Magazine. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Achraf Baznani". WinterHouse International. 19 January 2015. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 14 November 2014. "Inside My Dreams – A Photo Book by Achraf Baznani". JUTE Magazine. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Shelli Wright (15 December 2014). "Down the rabbit hole with artist Achraf Baznani". Bisous Magazine; LA, USA.
  9. ↑ "O mundo imaginário de um fotógrafo marroquino".
  10. ↑ Joel Robinson (April 29, 2015). "When Imitation Stops Being Flattering". Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  11. ↑ Joel Robison (April 30, 2015). "When Imitation Stops Being Flattering". Petapixel. Archived from the original on 2018-04-02. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  12. ↑ Stéphanie Jacob, L'Economiste 21 July 2015
  13. ↑ "Heretic Poster and Plagiarism - Achraf Baznani". 2024-12-12. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  14. ↑ "Achraf Baznani: A Natural Born Artist". Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "MyPafi Participating Artists". Archived from the original on 2016-07-30. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  16. ↑ "Notindoor Photography Magazine Winners announcement".
  17. ↑ "Achraf Baznani won the prestigious Prize Colosseo award in Italy as the first recipient from Morocco". Archived from the original on 2018-09-23. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
  18. ↑ "Don't Be a Square! | 30 November 2024 - Overview". AKKA Project - Contemporary African Art Gallery. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  19. ↑ Samia Mahe (20 July 2015). "Le Musée du Louvre accueille les œuvres d'Achraf Baznani, photographe de l'étrange". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  20. ↑ Alaoui, Kenza. "Exposition photographique d'Achraf Baznani à la galerie 127, à Marrakech". Archived from the original on 2019-07-11. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  21. ↑ Ribeiro, Santiago (2016-02-09). "International Surrealism Now 2016 Bissaya Barreto Foundation - Particula Space". leisuregazette. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  22. ↑ Elouizi, Mustapha (February 17, 2016). "Achraf Baznani, seul artiste arabe à l' "International Surrealism Now"". Libération. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Vernissage zur Ausstellung "Männer" des Kunstkreises Gräfelfing im neuen und alten Rathaus".
  24. ↑ Bennani, Ouafaâ. "La photographie surréaliste d'Achraf Baznani s'invite à Rabat". Le Matin.
  25. ↑ Menafn (2 November 2014). ""Inside my dreams" a new photobook by surreal photographer Achraf Baznani". Menafn. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  26. ↑ "Imagining the impossible". PHmag. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  27. ↑ "Search Results for: Achraf Baznani: 5th issue". Art Reveal. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.

Other websites

change
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Achraf Baznani.
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Achraf_Baznani&oldid=9947423"