Making images for a maison is slow and split across too many people. An agency writes it. A production company shoots it. A photographer keeps half the rights. A post house grades it three weeks later. And when the shoot moves to the Gulf, nobody in the room has ever worked there.
144 is the other way round. One house, founded in Paris in 2019, working from Paris and Abu Dhabi. One brief, one team, one estimate, from the first idea to the file that goes out.
What we take off your desk
The film, the campaign and the month of posts are three different companies.
One house. One brief, one team, one estimate.
The shoot is in the Gulf and the crew is in Paris.
People on both sides. Nobody flies who could have been found there.
The grade comes back three weeks after the shoot.
Post is in house. Overnight when the job needs it.
The images arrived and nobody can say what you are allowed to do with them.
The licence is a line in the estimate. Media named, territory named, duration named.
The estimate is one number and you cannot see what moves it.
Line by line. You see every number and what makes it go up or down.
What we make
Films and photographs made to outlast the season they were made for.
Brand films and campaigns. Shows, launches, backstage. Still life shot as objects, not as inventory. Portraits on film and Polaroid. Series for the everyday channels, months at a time, in one visual language instead of twelve. And the work around the image: the plan before there is anything to shoot, the identity, the printed edition, the archive.
How it works
One brief in, one estimate out, line by line. The team is booked, not assembled from whoever happens to be free. Post is in house. The licence is written down every time, even when it costs nothing: media, territory, duration, exclusivity.
That is the whole point of the bridge: a Paris crew that lands in the Gulf next to people who already live there, or a Gulf shoot run without flying in a single person who could have been found locally.
What we don't do
We don't sell days. We don't fill a format. We don't take a job we cannot shoot ourselves and pass it down the street. We don't hand over images with the rights left vague, and we don't shoot without a purchase order. If a brief needs a bigger house than this one, we say so on the call.
The founder
144 was founded by Marwan Benameur, Algerian French photographer and director, who credits as Warwan. First camera at eleven. Years on the road with musicians, then fashion, then art. About ten years behind the camera, film and digital, Super 8, Polaroid, medium and large format. He edits and grades his own work, and he lives between Paris and Abu Dhabi.
Most of the people in front of his camera live very publicly. What he is after is the opposite: the unguarded second, the glance off camera, the frame they would actually keep at home.
Maisons, brands and titles he has worked for include Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Prada, LVMH, Ralph Lauren, L'Oréal Paris, Coperni, Amina Muaddi, Adidas, Birkenstock, Lacoste, Timberland, Acqua di Parma, Azzaro, Pierre Cardin, Rouje, Sézane, Courir, Bershka, GCDS, Nodaleto, Frame, and Vogue France, GQ France, GQ Middle East, AD Middle East, Harper's Bazaar, Numéro, 032c, Elle and Konbini.
Press and credits
Third party pages where the name appears in print. Others on request.
Selected work
Twenty projects, films and stills, are online. See all projects
Louis Vuitton
Saint Laurent
Met GalaTwo cities
Paris, France. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Shoots delivered worldwide.
Work with 144
Photographers, directors, stylists, crew: the directory is open on both sides of the bridge, and we book from it. Send your work
Questions
- Can you shoot in the Gulf?
- Yes. The house has people on both sides, so a shoot there does not mean flying a team in.
- Can we use the images for paid media?
- If the licence says so. Media, territory, duration and exclusivity are named in the estimate, never left implied, and each one is a line you can read.
- How fast can you deliver?
- Overnight when the job needs it. And we say on the call whether a deadline is real, before anyone agrees to it.