Born in Tangier in 1989, Hicham Gardaf discovered photography through books while working as a bookseller under the direction of Stéphanie Gaou. Influenced by documentary photographers such as Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld, he began photographing his neighbourhood and its residents in 2010 before developing a rigorous analogue practice.
Represented by Galerie 127 in Marrakech, he presented his first solo exhibition, Extimacy, in 2013 and was nominated the same year for the Foam Paul Huf Award and the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award. He received the Fondation des Treilles photography prize in 2015. His projects The Red Square and Intersections examine walls, urban peripheries and changing Moroccan cities. Gardaf divides his time between London and Tangier, and his work is held by the Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts.