VIVIANE SASSEN was born in Amsterdam, in 1972 and graduated from the Royal Academy of Arnhem, Netherlands having studied fashion, photography, and fine art. Her work has been published in numerous magazines including I-D , Purple , Dazed & Confused , Fantastic Man , VOGUE , Another Magazine , and Selfservice . Prestel has published a number of monographs on her work including Parasomnia , Pikin Slee , Umbra , and Hot Mirror . IRMA BOOM is a Dutch bookmaker. Her books are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Vatican Library, and Centre Pompidou, Paris, among other institutions. Boom designed both of Viviane Sassen's recent award-winning Prestel books Umbra and Hot Mirror. Damarice Amao is a French curator and historian of photography. She is currently a curator at the Cabinet de la photographie of the Musée National d'Art Moderne/Centre Pompidou.

She lives and works in Paris. Dawn Ades is a British art historian and academic. She is professor emeritus of art history and theory at the University of Essex . Simon Baker is a British curator, writer, and educator. Baker is currently director of the Maison Européenne de la photographie (MEP) in Paris. Clothilde Morette is a French curator and is currently the head of programming at the Maison Européenne de la photographie (MEP) in Paris. Dan Thawley is an Australian creative director, curator, and editor based in Paris, France.