Yaffa Assouline has worked as a journalist, consultant and creative art director. She specializes in innovative and made-to-measure publishing. She created the first luxury website on the internet, luxuryculture.com, and developed the first in-flight magazine, Air France Madame, before going on to create customized books and magazines. She authored the book MIA: I. M. Pei, a showcase of architect I. M. Pei’s work for the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, by photographer Keiichi Tahara. In collaboration with the Qatar Museums Authority, where she worked as the creative art director and a senior adviser, she supervised the opening of the Museum of Islamic Art. She is the author of the books Uzbekistan: The Road to Samarkand, Uzbekistan: Avant-Garde Orientalists and Uzbekistan: Russian Avant-Garde, all by Assouline.

Curious, eclectic, demanding, a dreamer and a self-taught man, Laziz Hamani is an exceptional photographer. Of Berber origin, he was born and lives in Paris. He is passionate about creating beautiful images, his life defined by a constant search for aesthetics and meaning. He has worked with many prestigious luxury brands, such as Dior, Cartier and Jaeger-LeCoultre, as well as with designer Axel Vervoordt, and he has collaborated with Assouline on more than twenty titles. From the finest details of high jewelry to the purity of minimalist design, Hamani aims to bring the viewer into dialogue with the image, to evoke power and beauty through his unique simplicity. He photographed the images for Uzbekistan: The Road to Samarkand.