Artists

Wide Open Art was founded by the team behind dePAOLA Pictures and is rooted in photographer and filmmaker Mark de Paola's philosophy of working "wide open"—an approach that values curiosity, emotional honesty, and the pursuit of an authentic artistic voice.

Culture moves forward through the work of artists who expand the possibilities of their medium.

Wide Open Art collaborates with established professionals whose lives are deeply immersed in photography, filmmaking, and visual storytelling. Each possesses a singular voice shaped through years of dedication, experience, and creative exploration.

Black and white portrait of an older man wearing a New York Yankees cap and glasses, holding a camera in his right hand, dressed in a leather jacket and jeans, with a neutral background.

Mark de Paola

Mark de Paola is a New York City-based fine art and fashion photographer and director with over 30 years of experience shooting campaign and fine art commissions for the likes of Vogue Spain, Vogue Mexico, Donna Kara, Estee Lauder, Elie Saab, and Saint Laurent. De Paola has directed several hundred television spots in the fashion/beauty sector including those for Giorgio RED Perfume (Bergdorf Goodman windows and MoMA NY), Ducati, Leica Camera, Sony, Neutrogena, and Ford Motorsports.

De Paola's fine art work is included in public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Getty in Los Angeles, the San Diego Center of Photographic Arts, and the TOP Museum in Tokyo. De Paola's pictorialist work as a still and motion artist has been driven by his studies of the neurobiology and cognitive psychology of human vision.

Co-Founder, Photographer + Director

Artist Collaborators

Close-up of a woman with long, wavy blonde hair, wearing a black jacket and a silver watch, resting her face on her hand with natural makeup and piercing blue eyes.

Sage Backstrom

Co-Founder, Producer, & Editor

Sage Backstrom is the founder and executive producer of dePAOLA Pictures and Wide Open Art and has worked with Mark de Paola for over a decade. Her work spans all sectors of the business from producing commercial work, fine art exhibitions, photo books, educational experiences, events, and most recently, feature films (A Stab At Heaven) with three projects now in development. She has introduced and established dePAOLA Pictures in global markets as a cultural leader in image making and storytelling working across mediums in order to build powerful partnerships between image, art, and commerce. Her alignment with de Paola to tell complex and authentic women’s stories has garnered strong partnerships with cultural leaders such as CHANEL, Estee Lauder, Gucci, Aman, McQueen, Conde Nast Italia, and Vogue.

Woman with blonde hair sitting on a modern wooden and white chair inside a room with large glass windows showing cactus plants outdoors.

Mona Kuhn

Mona Kuhn is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work explores the relationship between the physical and metaphysical through photography and immersive lens-based media. Over a career spanning more than two decades, she has developed a singular visual language that has established her among the leading voices in contemporary photography.

Born in São Paulo to German parents, Kuhn studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and is an independent scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in major public collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum, LACMA, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Kuhn is the author of numerous monographs and the recipient of the Stieglitz Award for her contribution to fine art photography. She lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented by galleries internationally.

Fine Art Photographer

A man with glasses and a beard holding a vintage camera to his face, wearing rings and necklaces, against a black background.

Mathieu Bitton

Photographer, Art Director, & Producer

Paris-born artist Mathieu Bitton is a photographer, designer, art director, and Grammy Award-winning producer whose work spans portraiture, music, film, and design. Renowned for his intimate approach to image making, his photographs seek to capture the truth of a subject through moments of honesty, spontaneity, and connection.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including Paris Blues, the companion to his bestselling monograph, and he has served as a Leica Camera Ambassador for many years. In addition to three Grammy Awards, Bitton has been named a Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in recognition of his contributions to the arts.