Biography

Shawn Mortensen is a Los Angeles based artist, photographer, & filmmaker who has been featured in i-D, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair and Details, and has shot covers for Spin, Vibe, The Source, XXL, & The Village Voice - to name a few. In addition to photographing well-known fashion and advertising campaigns and an cclectic list of celebrities and artists, he has shown his photographs with exhibitions at New York's Whitney & Guggenheim Museums, The Getty Museum & has won an MTV Video Music Award. Mortensen has also documented his global travels in provacative photo-essays, from rare access in Chiapas, Mexico, where he captured haunting images of the Zapatista uprising, to the dancehalls & shantytowns of Kingston, Jamaica, to the unspoiled landscapes of Mongolia, as well as intesive work in Ethiopia, South Africa & Nigeria. In order to spearhead AIDS awareness, he journeyed from South Africa, to Lagos, Nigeria, where he collaborated with the REDHOT Organization on the critically acclaimed benefit recording project and documentary Red Hot + RIOT. An artist & advocate, Shawn Mortensen creates a vast range of images that evoke sensational, & sometimes startling, results. His first book It's My Life ... Or It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time was published by BAPE Galley/ Bathing Ape in 2002. Mortensen's second book, Out of Mind was published in May 2007 by Harry Abrams. He is currently at work on his third to be released in 2008. Currently, Mortensen is touring an exhibtion of imagery from Out of Mind. The show is featured at SLAMJAM in Verona, Italy until January, & will open January 14th at SLAMJAM Milano to coincide with Men's Fashion Week. December 20 - January 2o, 2008 Shawn is exhibiting Zapatista Revolution mural prints @ La Esquina Cafe in New York City's Soho / S.Lafayette in commemoration of the 14th anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising January 1st, 1994 ... ' The Shot that was heard around the world. '.