Sacha Dean Bïyan

Sacha Dean Bïyan was born on October 1, 1967, and grew up mainly in Montreal, Canada.[1] He spent his later formative years in Paris, New York City and Los Angeles, during which he cultivated his interest in music, art and photography.

Bïyan began his career as a club deejay in the mid-1980s while he was still in high school.[2] He initially spun a mix of hip hop, electro, disco and funk, then transitioned to deeper, soulful house sounds, influenced by the likes of Larry Levan at New York’s Paradise Garage. His experiences during those early years were instrumental in shaping the audio and visual style of his later work.[3]

After a somewhat itinerant adolescence, Bïyan trained as an engineer, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Robotics and a Master of Science in Aeronautical Engineering. He worked as an industrial designer in the aerospace industry for several years, designing interiors of private and commercial jets, before becoming a professional photographer at age thirty four.[4]

Bïyan began experimenting with cameras, photographic film and darkroom techniques at an early age. While he had no formal training in photography, he has said that "I got my schooling on the streets, photographing just about anything and anyone, and learning from my mistakes... Those experiences taught me more about photography than any classroom ever could."[5] Bïyan initially worked in commercial photography before veering more towards photojournalism and filmmaking.

Bïyan has shot advertising campaigns, music videos and documentaries for clients such as Sony Music, Adidas, GAP, Lexus, PBS and the Discovery Channel; and his editorial images have appeared in GQ, Maxim, Vogue and Marie Claire.[6] He has held solo exhibitions of his works in São Paulo,[7] Florence, Barcelona, Paris and Los Angeles[8] — the latter as a benefit for Amnesty International. In April, 2022, a selection of his work was exhibited at the Decentral Art Pavilion’s[9] inaugural NFT art exhibition, “Singularity”, during the 59th Venice Art Biennale.

Bïyan is the author of two fine art books: Spiritus Mundi published in 2005, and Eccentris published in 2012. Spiritus Mundi took nine years to complete, and documents his encounters with remote indigenous cultures in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, the Philippines, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Burma, China, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Micronesia.[10] His second book, Eccentris, is a retrospective of his work in fashion and advertising from 1998 to 2006.

Bïyan's images also served as the inspiration for the music CD Dessous Presents Eccentris: Skin Is In,[11] released in 2006 by German house music label Dessous Recordings. Dessous subsequently released the iTunes album Eccentris Vibes,[12] compiled and mixed by Bïyan. Both albums were spawned by the popularity of his fashion photography website, Eccentris.com, which was considered groundbreaking during the Flash era.[13]

Eccentris was an interactive branding concept developed and produced by New York design agency Firstborn Multimedia. Bïyan engaged Firstborn in early 2000 to build an online identity for his edgy (hence eccentric) style of fashion photography. The intent was to develop an equally cutting edge website that combined static images with high-definition audio and video, motion graphics, and a dynamic user interface. However, due to bandwidth and computer CPU limitations at the time, many technical hurdles were encountered, and the ambitious scope had to be scaled back significantly to make the site work.

Eccentris.com was finally launched in 2002 to critical acclaim. It still featured ample amounts of imagery, music and motion, and was described by Rob Ford of Favourite Website Awards as "a unique sensory experience with truly awe-inspiring photography that exudes nothing but innovation and class."[14]

In 2002, Communication Arts named Eccentris one of its Interactive Annual 9 winners,[15] and it was subsequently featured in the September / October 2003 issue of Communication Arts.[16] In 2004, it was recipient of the FITC award for best navigation.[17]

Bïyan's two websites, Eccentris.com and the original Sachabiyan.com (also designed by Firstborn Multimedia),[n 1] have been showcased in numerous other print and online publications, including Taschen's 1,000 Favorite Websites[18] and Taschen's Web Design Portfolios.[19] Both websites were retired in 2021 due to Adobe’s decision to discontinue Flash, and are exhibited in the Web Design Museum, a website that preserves the most influential web designs from the dawn of the millennium.[20]

Bïyan has been called a "citizen of the world" [21] as has traveled to over 80 countries for his photographic projects. He is fluent in six languages, and has lived in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. He calls New York City his spiritual home, having spent what he said were some of his "most formative years" there.[22]

• 2005 : Spiritus Mundi. Editora DBA. Hardcover ISBN 978-8-5723432-5-1. Portuguese/English.
• 2007 : Spiritus Mundi. Great Circle Books. Paperbound ISBN 978-0-9798631-0-3. English.
• 2012 : Eccentris. Editions Lumiere. Hardcover ISBN 978-0-578-10981-7. English.

• @sachabiyan - Bïyan's Instagram page.
• Sacha Dean Biyan - Bïyan's official website, featuring his fine art, ethnographic, reportage and fashion work.
• Eccentris - Now defunct Flash website. Redirects to Bïyan's official site.