Regarded as one of the most important Senegalese photographers of his generation, Omar Victor Diop was born in Dakar in 1980 and was brought up there. He now divides his time between his birthplace and Paris.
From a very early age, Diop cultivated his vivid imagination as much through photography as through literature and history, leading him to hone his talent in several art forms, from collage and creative writing to fashion and textile design. His influences include the major African portrait artists Mama Casset, Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, the French creator Jean-Paul Goude, as well as a number of Flemish and Spanish painters of the Renaissance.
At his family’s urging and despite his passion for arts, Diop pursued graduate studies in corporate communications and project management in Dakar and Paris and worked at a consulting firm in 2006 before joining a multinational company operating in Africa, a position he would soon leave to fully dedicate himself to his artistic practice.
Watch the following documentary film on Omar Victor Diop discussing African fashion.
