Floria Sigismondi is one of the first artists I ever really discovered via the internet, & she holds a special place in my heart to this day. Born in Italy to two opera singers & named after the main character from Tosca, Floria’s creepy, scuttling aesthetic instantly caught my attention. I remember finding her website — probably in 1997 or 1998 — & saving pretty much every picture on it to my computer.

This was one of my favourites.

Floria started off as a painter & illustrator, saying that she was transfixed by paintbrushes from an early age. She studied at the Ontario College of Art, but after taking a photography course, became obsessed with the medium & would skip classes to spend time with her camera.

After working as a fashion photographer, she started to make music videos, & that’s what she is most well-known for these days. (She is living proof that we don’t always end up doing what we had planned out for ourselves!)

She’s worked with a huge number of incredible artists, like David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Tricky, Christina Aguilera, Sigur Rós, Amon Tobin, Björk & The Cure, among others. Her gritty, jittery style is incredibly distinctive & beautiful.

Here are some of my favourite music videos by Floria.

(I think Tourniquet by Marilyn Manson is one of the best videos she’s ever done, but I can’t find an embeddable version…)

She also made this excellent short film called Postmortem Bliss.

Do you have a favourite music video director? One of my other favourites is Chris Cunningham, who directed Aphex Twin’s Come To Daddy (which terrified me the first time I saw it) & Windowlicker videos, as well as Bjork’s All Is Full Of Love & Madonna’s Frozen. I think he’s amazing!