Anthony Ghnassia, the man behind the iconic photos of music

On March 22, 2019, boiling seized the canvas. In the world of French rap, the date is marked with a white stone. The PNL group, worn by Ademo and our, two brothers from Essonne who have become real rock stars, is about to return after months of silence.

At 8 pm, the clip “Au DD” comes out on their YouTube channel. In a few hours, millions of people click on the video and take a real slap. Auditory but above all visual. For their comeback, the duo and their artistic teams saw things big: they praised the Eiffel Tower. Literally, the clip sets up on the Internet. In 48 hours, 12 million people look at him. The song becomes the most streamped in 24 hours on Deezer and the first French rap song to enter the world top Spotify.

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For days, madness continues. Especially when a photo of the two brothers, sitting on the iron lady, suspended in the void. Behind the goal, Anthony Ghnassia, eminent photographer and implanted in the world of music. “This is one of the most important photos of my career, clearly,” he smiled discreetly with Paris Match. “She enters my top 3, without a doubt,” he adds with the same passion. That of photography, which penetrated his soul and pulpit over 20 years ago. Easy with a photographer father say. But you still have to build your career, impose your own style and affix your paw in a well-stocked profession.

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Obviously, two decades later, for the kid of Bouches-du-Rhône, mayonnaise took a good. In a book entitled “Sound of Silence”, which will be released next October at HEMERIA editions, the photographer traces his career with his significant shots, in a well -established artistic direction: that of sound and silence

Six years tour alongside DJ Snake

Music and artists are the life of Anthony Ghnassia. In any case, his professional life. This is how he started his career as a photographer, two years after stopping school at the end of the college and a cap in pocket. “I was 17 years old, I watched the refusals when I was tapping many doors,” he says. Until so special when a “press secretary answered me to give me a chance on a photocall. That day, he photographs David Guetta, Bob Sinclar and Martin Solveig. His photos hit the bull’s eye and he enters through the big door in the world electro music alongside the Guetta (Cathy and David). For 2 years, he crossed the world with them and continues the concerts.

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But a meeting will truly propel Anthony to the front of the stage. “One day, a manager contacts me to make the flyers of his young DJ who comes to make dates in Paris,” he says. Then comes the meeting. “The artist arrives in my father’s studio. It’s a big guy who wears sunglasses. For some, the description is enough to recognize it: it is DJ Snake, with whom the feeling “goes pretty well”.

A few months later, the artist literally exploded with his title “Turn Down for What” and chose the photographer for his tour. “For six years, we went around the world together. They were non-stop tours. We grew up together, ”said Anthony Ghnassia

Of justice to PNL via Louane and Juliet Armanet

After a tour alongside justice, the man wants to take a break. Especially since this life does not facilitate that of family. “I wanted to go see elsewhere but we stayed near. I got married and I had two children too, ”he recalls.

The break in music will be punctuated by a passage in the press. He will even make a coverage of Paris Match with Anne Sinclair. It was in 2017 that he was contacted by the PNL manager, who is looking for a photographer. “We meet, it’s going well. I do their first tour, ”he breathes.

Then the bird makes its nest with the group with crazy success. The day of the famous photo on the Eiffel Tower, mentioned above, when he has no news of rappers, the phone rings. “It was my daughter’s birth day. I didn’t really want to go. But she pushed me to do it, ”he says. The continuation belongs to history.

Since then, the photographer, whose name has continued to circulate in the small music of music, has chained. He worked with Juliette Armanet, Eddy de Pretto or Louane. Above all, he has changed his skills, especially as artistic director for his friend DJ Snake.

“I spent six months in my hard drives”

In 2023, an idea came to his mind: why not make a book? After all, as a photographer, hard drives are real gold mines. But he did not want to integrate only photos related to music. “I like the image. So during my long years of tours, on off days, I was often going to walk with my device to capture landscapes and moments of life, ”says Anthony Ghnassia.

So, in his book “Sound of Silence”, he decided to offer more than 170 exclusive photos. Those of the madness of concerts and black people in the world in opposition to the silence of nature and animals. “I spent six months in my hard drives to get, images. Fortunately, I know them well, ”laughs the 30 -year -old.

In the book, the clichés will therefore be omnipresent. “But I didn’t want to have just a photo book. I also wanted to involve 11 artists with whom I collaborated in it, ”he breathes. So, he made it preface by Pedro Winter and introduced the words of DJ Snake, Justice, Juliette Armanet, Eddy de Pretto or Nikos Aliagas.

In his career, this book will therefore be a “real time marker” and above all a “turning point”. The photo is her life, but he will leave it aside. From now on, he wants to focus on something else: video, realization and artistic direction and production. “These sides go for me because, being a father, I can do my job and get my children at school,” he concludes.