Abdo Shanan was born in 1982 in Oran, Algeria to a Sudanese father and an Algerian mother. Abdo studied Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Sirte, Libya until 2006. In 2012, he undertook an internship at Magnum Photos Paris, which gave him the opportunity to reflect on his photographic approach and make his first story for the magazine 'Rukh'. His photographs have been published by a number of printed and online magazines as well as by newspapers. In 2015, he received a nomination for Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund and in 2016 his series 'Diary:Exile' was selected by the Addis Fotofest. Abdo in 2019 won The CAP Prize(Contemporary African Photography) for his ongoing project “Dry”, in the same year he is selected for Joop Swart Masterclass by World Press Photo.
We are KOZ, a collective of four Moroccan visual artists working on long term projects and sharing a passion for storytelling. Aware of the rise of a fast, and sometimes gappy global media landscape, we focus on a hybrid and research-based work.
Often rising from a personal matter, our questions inevitably engage a dialogue with our world, diverse and complex yet interrelated. We believe, as born witnesses first, and as storytellers, that we can contribute to bring change through photography by grounding ourselves to our environment and shedding light on undocumented stories.
Koz, meaning 4 in amazigh, is an obvious pun that highlights the very essence of the members’ visual work, which, from documentary to fiction stand for a deeply rooted and keen urge of making sense of current events.
BIOs
Yasmine Hatimi (b. 1986, Casablanca) works as a photographer in Casablanca. In 2004 she left Casablanca for Madrid to pursue degrees in cinematography and photography. After nine years she returned to Morocco with the intention of rediscovering her country through her photographic work. An eternal dreamer, her work lies between melancholy and poetry, and seeks to transmit an atmosphere inspired by her internal universe. Her latest work focuses on young Moroccan Masculinity, which she approaches with a certain dreamlike romanticism
Seif Kousmate (b. 1988, Essaouira, Morocco) is a self-taught photographer specialized in social issues. He has developed a visual vocabulary that stands between documentary photography and the poetry of fine art photography. After a career as a Project Manager in the civil engineering sector, he dedicated himself professionally to photography in 2016. Since then, he has been working on different themes in Africa: migration, youth, slavery... he has worked for three years on the immigration of sub-Saharans on the land border between Morocco and Europe, more specifically on Mount Gourougou where he spent several weeks in immersion. He also worked on traditional slavery in Mauritania and Rwandan Youth in 2018 and 2019. A National Geographic Explorer since 2018, he was selected as a 6x6 Global Talent Program by World Press Photo in 2020 and is one of the ADPP (Arab Documentary Photography Program) grantees. His work has been exhibited in Europe and Africa; it has also been published in international magazines and newspapers such as The York Times, Newsweek, Libération, The Guardian, El Pais, NZZ among others.
Imane Djamil’s photography seeks the very fine line between reality and the sublime in what she calls Mental Geographies. Contingent and cross-cultural worlds interpenetrate through narrative assemblage creating new topographies. Her former interest in places in post-traumatic transition drives her towards a vision at the crossroads of intimate, but yet widely spread, autofiction and visual tales. Territories like Tarfaya, a Saharian city where the Little Prince, Antoine de St-Exupery’s character was born, or Sarajevo become conceptual microcosms in which History begets a metaphorical dialogue with personal, political or gender related anecdotes. As a nomad, it is in her visual, literary, and performative work that she seeks refuge to poetically inhabit a space. While her poetry is immediate and tumultuous, often described as raw and unapologetic, her photographs are rather lyrical. A photograph is based on a reality which includes the active participation of the author, camera, and subject, three necessary and vital components (which can be portrayed as parental figures) for its conception. The artist has an interest in the moment of transition of a photograph, the moment in which the umbilical cord breaks (the roll is developed) and splits with the womb to become an independent entity. Imane is interested in the independence of a photograph, this mysterious child who draws their own destiny independently from their origin. While the birth of a photograph is the fruit of a moment that once existed, its present is autonomous, making it a photograph that has as many lives as viewers. Imane Djamil has shown her work in various galleries and photography festivals including Le Maroc Contemporain at Institut du Monde Arabe in 2014 and Photoespana’s official selection in 2018. She is a multidisciplinary artist and has participated in multiple residencies such as Mujeres y el Mediterraneo at Casa Mediterraneo in Alicante and Esperienza Pepe as part of the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
M'hammed Kilito (b. 1981, Russia) is an independent Moroccan photographer based in Rabat, Morocco. He is represented internationally by Native Agency and is a co-founder and a photographer of KOZ collective. He holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from Ottawa University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Montreal. As a documentary photographer, he addresses issues relating to cultural identity and the human condition in Morocco. In 2017, he received a grant from the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Morocco and started photographing the series Destiny about the relationship between work and social determinism. In 2018, M'hammed was part of the Arab Documentary Photography Program, a joint program by Magnum Foundation, AFAC, and Prince Claus Fund during which he worked on his ongoing project Portrait of a generation questioning the realities of Moroccan youth. He is an alumnus of the 2019 edition of the Eddie Adams Workshop where he earned a National Geographic Award. In 2020, M'hammed was selected by the British Journal of Photography among the 18 best emerging photographers from across the globe to watch, was selected as a 6x6 Global Talent by World Press Photo, became a National Geographic Explorer, received The Photography Prize of the Fondation des Treilles and is currently shortlisted for The Contemporary African Photography Prize. M'hammed is a member of the World Press Photo's African Photojournalism Database (APJD) and a contributor of Everyday Middle East and North Africa, a collection of images that convey a more accurate view of daily life in the MENA region than what is commonly seen in the media. His work has been shown at festivals and venues including Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah), Tate Modern (London), National Museum of Photography (Rabat), Addis Foto Fest (Addis Ababa), PHotoESPAÑA (Madrid), Helsinki Photo Festival (Helsinki) and Breda Photo Festival (Breda) amidst others. His photographs have been featured in magazines and newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The British Journal of Photography, Vogue Italia, L'Express, VICE Arabia, and El Pais.
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