Sinuhe Xavier is perhaps the only washed up professional skier to have shot for Gillette, eBay, and Spinal Tap. He is further distinguished by the fact that he did not pursue a career in directing films until 2003, when he traded a life in the mountains for the potentially more treacherous terrain of Los Angeles.
After co-writing the Sony Dreams short “Little Pony” with Filip Engstrom at Smuggler, Sinuhe directed two projects with Creative Artists Agency: the first was his critically acclaimed stop motion Lego piece for eBay’s “Let Them Post” campaign (featured in Creativity, Boards and Shoot); he next directed Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKeon for Spinal Tap’s 2009 twenty-five year Reunion Tour.
High profile spot work followed. Sinuhe directed Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter for Gillette, Michael Strahan for Subway, and Steve Casimiro on several segments for National Geographic. Over the past few years, advertising agencies BBDO, TBWA Chiat Day, Saatchi, and Euro RSCG have all turned to Sinuhe to bring their unique visions to life.
Sinuhe’s photography career actually began in front of the lens, as a professional ski mountaineer for The North Face in Bozeman, Montana, working with National Geographic photographer Gordon Wiltse. While studying architecture and photography at Montana State University, Sinuhe transitioned his way from in front of, to behind the camera and found his love of visually telling stories. He has been published in National Geographic Adventure, Overland Journal, Print and Transworld Snowboarding magazines and has also shot for Burton Snowboards, Nike, Volvo, Toyota, Marmot and EA Sports.
During this time, he also designed the “Heli Pack” for DaKine, a design that went on to become the best-selling technical backpack in history and is still in production 15 years later.