Education

M.A. Photography (In progress) - Falmouth University (U.K.)

B.A Photography - Southern New Hampshire University (U.S.)

Biography

Olivier Desmet (b. 1973, Belgium) is a photographer and darkroom printer based in Mill Valley, California. Deeply influenced by the Japanese concept of mono no aware (the beauty of transience), his work offers viewers a quiet experience that invites introspection.

Over the years, he has developed a practice grounded in traditional darkroom techniques. For Desmet, a photograph is incomplete until it takes shape in the darkroom, where the nuance of tone and contrast brings emotional resonance and visual clarity to his work.

Desmet’s work has been widely recognized and featured in publications such as The Financial Times, Metropolis Japan, Tokyo Weekender, and The Southern Review. He has published three monographs to date: Mono no Aware (2021), an exploration of urban and natural impermanence; Tsukiji (2022), a visual elegy to Tokyo’s historic fish market, and Marine Layer (2023), a meditation on the relationship between fog and light. His photograph Ichiyuki-San Performs Kabuki Dance, from the Portraits of Maiko series, is included in the permanent collection of the International Museum of Dance.