In the past few years, Arab aesthetics have been omnipresent in fashion, cinema, photography and music. For Arab creatives, this felt like a source of pride and the hope for greater visibility, at first. Till the day they realized Western creatives were covering those projects solo. With Ilyes Griyeb, Moroccan photographer and recent victim of plagiarism, we decided to talk about this reality.

Initially published in French, this article was translated by Meriem Bennani.

“Hey, what did you think of The Blaze’s latest music video ?”

We had to answer this question about twenty times since February. “The Blaze’s latest music video”, it’s the visual gem that premiered last February for Territory, a track by Guillaume et Jonathan Alric, aka The Blaze. A highly crafted music video produced by Iconoclast (one of the biggest music video production companies worldwide) and shot in Algiers, which tells stories around masculinity and the return to origins. The video has encountered a quasi-unanimous success in French and international creative spheres. We naturally appreciated the effort, but couldn’t help wondering:

— Cool, but why Algiers ?

Le second clip de The Blaze, sorti en février dernier a connu un vrai succès viral

In an effort to understand the answer to this question, and thinking more generally about the reasons why European creatives have drawn inspiration from Arab countries for about 5 years, a few (non exhaustive) hypotheses have come to mind :

— These territories haven’t been fully photographically drained yet, therefore offering an easy alternative to over used postcard landscapes known from all.

— Less than a 3h flight away are complex societies, heavy in vivacious tensions that make for powerful narrative opportunities.

— Authenticity (THE creative token of the 2010’s) is omnipresent there. From locations to casting and styling, everything is original and feels real.

— Globalized thinking is conscious and diverse. The Blaze or the Fearless Girl of Wall Street have scored 5 Grand Prizes at the last Lions de Cannes.

— With the return of 1990’s fashion, the figure of the “racaille” (sportswear loving North-African or African alpha male) has made a come back for creators, overused in fashion, photography and cinema.