Born in 1997 in El Hajeb, Morocco
Lives and works between Paris and El Hajeb
A self-taught artist, Mehdi Ait El Mallali explores photography through an intuitive relationship with light. He is drawn to the textures of the world, to nature in its raw and ever-changing state. His images are often born from chance, yet never left to it: reframing, shifts in polarity, and contrasts all contribute to a deliberate and attentive construction.
Abstraction emerges as a fertile illusion, where light shapes space and influences our perception. The artist thus creates an in-between world, a territory with porous, uncertain contours, and perhaps a truer one. Detached from geographical anchors, his photographs invite a sensory and meditative experience, where the viewer is called to feel rather than to recognize. Within a captured moment, far from insignificant, there lies a place of dreaming outside ourselves, the artist seems to whisper.
His work has been presented at Galerie 127, at the Maison du Maroc in Paris, at the Montélimar Photo Festival in France, as well as at the National Museum of Photography in Rabat, Morocco. In 2024, he was awarded the Mustaqbal First Prize. His works are part of the permanent collection of the Montresso Foundation in Morocco.
Available for comissions in Paris & Morocco
Contact, Prints & Business Inquiries: contact@mehdiaitelmallali.com
Solo Exhibitions
"Blur" solo show - Montresso Art Foundation - November 2024
Collective Exhibitions
Salon de Casablanca de l'art emergent - November 2025
Rencontres d'Arles - La Nuit de l’Année - July 2025
Woven Crossing Collective Exhibition, Montreuil - March 2025
1-54 Art Fair Marrakech, La Mamounia - January 2025
Nostalgie Du Present - Al Hamra Marrakech - January 2025
"Madda" Alchimies photographiques - Artorium Fondation TGCC - November 2024
OFF Rencontres Photo Arles, Exhibition "The Language of Pictures" - July 2024
Prix Mustaqbal 2023, Artorium Fondation TGCC - January 2024
Yasalam Exhibition - L'Blassa Art Space, Marrakech - November 2023
Face à la Mer Mentorship Program, Tangier - November 2022
"Nadra", Noorseen Collective Exhibition at Galerie127 Montreuil - October 2021
"Nadra", Noorseen Collective Exhibition at Maison du Maroc, Paris - June 2021
Collective Exhibition, Ta7rir Morocco, at l'UZINE foundation, Casablanca - February 2021
Photo Festival "Présences photographie", Montélimar France - November 2020
Founder Member of Noorseen Collective
OFF 1-54 Art Fair, Bab Hotel, Marrakech - February 2020
Collective Exhibition "Points de vue", Galerie Abla Ababou, Rabat - February 2020
Collective Exhibition "Sourtna", The National Museum of Photography, Rabat - January 2020
Collective Exhibition, L’UZINE Casablanca - December 2019
Festival "Les nuits photographiques d’Essaouira" - October 2019
OFF Festival of Photography in Essaouira - September 2018
Collective Documentary Project / L’UZINE: "Habiter une cité ouvrière" Casablanca
Exhibition in Fine Arts School of Casablanca - May 2018
Exhibition in L’UZINE Casablanca - January 2019
Transatlantica Photo Espana - October 2017
Residencies
Tilal Utique, Kamal Lazaar Foundation Tunisia - July-August 2025
Montresso Art Foundation - Permanent Resident
Collections:
TGCC Foundation
Montresso Art Foundation
Kamel Lazaar Foundation
Privation Collections
Prizes & Nominations
3rd Prize - Art Contemporary Prize, AL MADA Foundation 2025
1st Prize at Prix Mustaqbal 3rd Edition 2024
Nomination Paul Huf Photography Award - 2024
Nomination Top 20 Best african photobook of the year - Eiger Foundation 2024
Press & Publications
The Royal Photographic Society Fall Issue 2024
Funambulist Magazine - March 2018.
Pop Up - 2M
Lioumness
Noorseen : Mille World - Middle East Eye - Cosmic Mektoub - Diptyk