Arab News | Highlights from Hassan Hajjaj’s solo exhibition ‘My Rock Stars’

DUBAI: ‘Souad Massi’

Billed as “a joyous coming together of photography and music,” the acclaimed Anglo-Moroccan artist’s solo show at the Musée de la Musique de la Philharmonie de Paris “draws on his African, Arab, Gnawa and Amazigh heritages, as well as on the reggae and hip-hop cultures of the 1980s, to celebrate the many figures who inspire him.” Hajjaj’s vibrant images of musicians, including this shot of the Algerian singer-songwriter, are framed, as is typical of his work, by branded products that will be recognizable to many from the MENA region.   

‘Tierra Whack’

It was another Algerian singer-songwriter, Rachid Taha, who gave Hajjaj the nickname “Andy Wahlou” — a nod both to his pop-art styling and a play on the phrase “andi walou,” meaning “I have nothing at all” in Darija. Hajjaj’s work, the show notes state, blur cliches “in a collision between African culture of upcyling and the pop culture of appropriating objects from consumer society.”

‘Alicia & Swizz’

This shot of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz was many years in the making. “Logistics always got in the way,” Hajjaj told Arab News in 2024. The portrait was actually shot in AlUla, where Hajjaj was commissioned to shoot portraits of locals for a show at AlUla Arts Festival. Keys and her husband happened to be performing there at the same time. Hajjaj managed to get the pair shot on his last day in AlUla, with perhaps an hour left before the light faded. Other musicians featured in “My Rock Stars” include Billie Eilish, Taha, Madonna, and Lee “Scratch” Perry,