Sophie Bramly

Born in Tunisia, Sophie Bramly grew up in Paris and studied photography at Penninghen art school. Her career started at 20, as part of the group exhibition Autoportraits at the Centre George Pompidou, next to world renown photographers. She then worked for various magazines, including Paris Match and Elle.

Two years later, she moved to New York and quickly became involved in the Bronx hip-hop scene, which she followed for three years. As European medias picked on hip-hop before the US, she returned to France in 1984, and started selling her work. She also became artistic director of "H.I.P.-H.O.P.", a TV show on France’s biggest network, TF1. That same year, she published her first photo book, "Hip Hop Story", devoted to this emerging culture.

In 1987, she moved to London as part of the founding team of MTV Europe, creating, producing and hosting "Yo!", the first English-language hip-hop TV show broadcasting throughout Europe, a concept that MTV U.S. would take up a year later.

In 2011, she held her first solo exhibition of photos taken in the Bronx thirty years earlier, "1981 & +", which traveled to several cities in France. In 2015, she published "Walk This Way", a limited edition book with an original print, accompanied by a new exhibition (Paris, Marseille, Brussels, Los Angeles...). Her photos regularly feature in top international books and exhibitions on hip-hop culture. In 2022, she released "Yo! The Early Days of Hip-hop", published by Soul Jazz Books, tracing all the beginnings of this culture.