Joel Benguigui
Joel Benguigui is an artist, photographer and art director working across fine art, documentary and fashion. Born in Denpasar, Flores, of East Indonesian heritage and raised in Paris, he brings a cross-cultural perspective to portraiture, architecture, and place. Now based in Bundjalung Country near Byron Bay, he works internationally on commissions and long-term projects. Recent recognition includes selection as a finalist for the 2025 Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture at Tweed Regional Gallery in Australia.
Benguigui’s commissioned and editorial work spans institutions, luxury brands, and independent magazines. His clients and publishers include Architecture Media’s Houses magazine, Condé Nast France, Lancôme Paris and Dazed, with additional features in PhotoVogue. Working between Europe, Australia and South East Asia, he creates images that balance restraint, texture and natural light, often blending still life with environmental portraiture.
In 2025, he was named a finalist in the Olive Cotton Award, confirming his growing profile within Australian photographic portraiture. Recent architectural and design assignments include projects for DFJ Architects and Tigmi, alongside an ongoing personal series produced on film. His earlier collaboration under the moniker Hannah and Joel established a foundation in fashion and documentary practice that continues to inform his current direction.
Benguigui’s practice is rooted in careful observation and patient craft. He often works with large format and analogue processes, using the slower rhythm of those tools to create images that feel grounded and deliberate. Parallel to his commissioned work, he develops multi-year personal projects, including the Pulang series, which traces family, memory, and return across Indonesia and the diaspora. This personal inquiry aligns with his interest in architecture and designed spaces, where he treats light and material as characters, allowing domestic and civic places to reveal their quiet narratives.
Across portraits, interiors and landscapes, his pictures seek the small thresholds where intimacy and distance meet. Living on Bundjalung Country has sharpened his awareness of place and the ethics of working within the community. He prefers collaborative processes with designers, choreographers and writers, building visual essays that carry a measured, contemplative tone rather than spectacle. Whether working for international brands or publishing experimental studies, his focus remains constant: to make photographs that hold care for subjects and invite viewers into a slower way of looking.
Recent cross-disciplinary work includes a collaboration with the London studio Alba Amicorum and dancer Juliet Burnett, produced during the pandemic and profiled by The National. His photographic contributions to Architecture Media and ArchitectureAU reflect an ongoing engagement with the built environment. Benguigui acknowledges and works with the cultural protocols of the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung Nation. He continues to split his time between assignments and teaching-led workshops, mentoring emerging photographers on analogue methods, editing and the development of sustained personal projects.
Group show at Yossi Milo NYC Sept 2013
‘Desire, New Erotic photography’, 2015, Patrick Remy, Ed. Prestel
‘Motus in Silentio’ solo show, 2018, St Vincents Antwerp, BE
‘Pulang’, 2018, a 3 part series, Leica France
‘ In Situ’ solo show, 2021, Gallery 3, Byron Bay, AUS
‘Birds’ group show, 2022, Gallery 3, Byron Bay, AUS
Olive Cotton finalist exhibition, 15th Aug. – 2nd Nov. 2025, Tweed Regional Gallery, AUS
Published in Dazed Magazine, Intro magazine (Die Stern Group), Lufthanza magazine, Houses magazine (Architecture Media)