Viviane Sassen

She has been widely published and exhibited. She was included in the 2011 New Photography exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. She has created campaigns for Miu Miu, Stella McCartney, and Louis Vuitton, among others. She has won the Dutch Prix de Rome (2007) and the Infinity Award from International Center of Photography.

The field of work recorded is photography. Work by Viviane Sassen is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Netherlands Photo Museum, Museum Arnhem and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Distinctions recorded are Prix de Rome, David Octavius Hill Medal and Infinity Awards.

• Name — Viviane Sassen • Born — 1972 • Birthplace — Amsterdam • Known for — Photography • Training — Ateliers Arnhem • Movement — Contemporary Art • Awards — International Center of Photography's Infinity Award, Kees Scherer Award, Prix de Rome (Netherlands)

Sassen lived in Kenya as a child and often works in Africa. She started studying fashion at Arnhem, but soon turned to photography. She received her MFA from Royal Academy in Arnhem. She is of the generation of photographer/artists that alternate personal, editorial, and commercial work and embrace an interdisciplinary attitude. She says, "You should always be able to judge a photograph on different grounds, on political, social, emotional, but also on personal grounds." She is known for her use of geometric shapes, often abstractions of bodies. The photographed bodies are often intertwined, inspired by daily physical contact with strangers she experienced in Africa. Conscious of the stereotypical images of famine and poverty, she includes contemporary elements abundant in Africa like cell phones and automobiles. Sassen was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015 for her exhibition Umbra at Nederlands Fotomuseum. For several advertising campaigns, Sassen worked with fashion label 3.1 Phillip Lim. Commissioned by Italian luxury goods manufacturer Bottega Veneta, she photographed Mica Argañaraz and Sven de Vries at the Kröller-Müller Museum for the brand's spring/summer 2016 advertisements. Working on other campaigns, she later photographed Langley Fox at Villa Noailles for Lancel (2016) as well as Natalie Portman and Yara Shahidi for Dior (2022), among others.

• 2013: In and Out of Fashion, Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France • 2014: Umbra, Netherlands Photo Museum, Rotterdam, the Netherlands • 2014: Analemma: Fashion Photography 1992 – 2012, The Photographers' Gallery, London, October 2014 – January 2015

• 2011/2012: New Photography 2011, Museum of Modern Art, New York, September 2011 – January 2012. Photographs by Sassen and Moyra Davey, Zhang Dali, George Georgiou, Deana Lawson and Doug Rickard. • 2012: The Youth Code, part of Daegu Photo Biennale, South Korea. Included work by Sassen as well as Anouk Kruithof, Ryan McGinley and Willem Popelier.

Viviane Sassen is recorded as having received Prix de Rome, David Octavius Hill Medal and Infinity Awards.