Jalan and Jibril Durimel’s photography “tells the stories of all cultures of the diaspora”

Date
21 June 2017

The photography of twin brothers Jalan and Jibril Durimel aims to “shed light on life’s unseen”, capturing romantic and graceful moments, while using their skills to “tell the stories of all cultures of the diaspora”.

Originally born in Paris to parents from the island of Guadeloupe, they moved to Miami at the age of four where they got their first taste of American culture. After elementary school the pair moved to the Caribbean island of St Maarten for high school, where their passion for film and photography was ignited. They then travelled back to the US to go to college and study film at Los Angeles City College, a small community college in the city.

With such a diverse upbringing and exposure to different visual cultures, the pair’s photography doesn’t have a specific style as such, rather there’s a consistent tone throughout their portfolio. Soft, velvet lighting drapes itself across many of their subjects, creating opportunities for light and shadow to play, and the pair’s composition is unexpected, with the background and foreground of images working both together and in contrast.

Jalan and Jibril initially started out creating a short-lived style blog which was their first leap into photography, and also won them several modelling jobs, including one with American Apparel. Yet the pair have been keen to stay behind the camera since, but their experience of art direction, modelling and styling all plays a part in their photography, manifesting itself as an understated elegance.

Most recently the pair have worked on huge commercial projects including Sampha’s zine Shy Light, which saw them also work with Jamie Reid, Grace Wales Bonner and Tom Ordonyo. And in the past, they’ve worked on Kenzo’s Spring 2017 campaign starring Kelsey Lu, Jesse Williams and Tracee Ellis Ross and directed a music video for Mereba’s song Bet.

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About the Author

Rebecca Fulleylove

Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.

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