Leila Alaoui

Leila Alaoui (10 July 1982 – 18 January 2016) was a French–Moroccan photographer and video artist. She worked as a commercial photographer for magazines and non-governmental organizations and completed assignments on refugees. Her work was exhibited widely and is held in the collection of Qatar Museums. Alaoui died from injuries suffered in a 2016 terrorist attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Life and work Alaoui was born in Paris to a Moroccan father and a French mother, and grew up in Marrakesh, Morocco. When Alaoui turned 18, she moved to New York City to study photography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She returned to Morocco in 2008. To do this, she used image creation, reports and studio video installations. One of her commonly used techniques was to set up a portable studio in a public place such as a market square and to invite interested passers-by to be photographed. Alaoui often emphasizes her subjects, minimizing the background of some of her portraits.

Art critic Lara Atallah described her work as a "rebuke [of] the orientalist discourse", referring to the theory of Orientalism proposed by Edward Said.

Her photos were published in The New York Times and Vogue. In 2013, she was commissioned by the Danish Refugee Council to create a series of portraits of refugees in Lebanon. The project was called Natreen ("We Wait"). In 2015, she completed a photographic assignment "Everyday Heroes of Syria", in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, focusing on Syrians living in refugee settlements.

Death Alaoui was hired by UN Women and Amnesty International to work on a photographic assignment on women's rights in Burkina Faso. On January 16, 2016, during her first week working on the assignment, she was seriously wounded by gunshots while sitting in a parked car with her driver outside the Cappuccino café whilst gunmen attacked the Cappuccino and the Splendid Hotel. Mahamadi Ouédraogo, the driver, sustained critical injuries and died in the vehicle. Alaoui was quickly taken to a hospital and, following an operation, seemed initially to be in a stable condition. She died three days later of a heart attack. Her remains were flown to Morocco at the expense of King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

On her death, the director of the Maison européenne de la photographie and the president of Arab World Institute made a joint statement praising her work giving "a voice to the voiceless"

Exhibitions Marrakesh Biennial, Morocco, 2012 Marrakesh Biennial, Morocco, 2014 Luxembourg Art Week, November 2015 Biennale of Photography in the Contemporary Arab World, Paris, 2015

Collections Alaoui's work is held in the following public collection: Qatar Museums, Doha, Qatar