Patrick Demarchelier Overview
This monograph is the definitive guide to the career of one of the most prodigious fashion photographers of our time. From his earliest work at
Harper's Bazaar to his now mythic collaboration with
Vogue, Patrick Demarchelier has single-handedly redefined the fashion photograph and the fashion industry along with it. His celebrity portraits have shaped the public personae of figures ranging from Princess Diana to Madonna. Demarchelier is everywhere at once, with a photographic sensibility that is as iconic, incisive and as varied as his subject matter.
Published to coincide with the exhibition
Patrick Demarchelier: Images et Mode a Paris at the Petit Palais, Paris, and featuring more than 400 of Demarchelier's most telling photographs, this volume provides an invaluable fashion reference point, all the while charting the course of our own cultural obsession with celebrity and beauty. All proceeds go to the charity Police--Action Solidaire.
Born outside Paris in 1943,
Patrick Demarchelier relocated to New York in 1975, where he began his editorial career with
Harper's Bazaar and Hearst Publications. His photographs appear regularly on the covers and in the pages of publications such as
Vogue and
Vanity Fair, among many others. He was the 2007 recipient of the Eleanor Lambert Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. He continues to live and work in New York.
Customer Reviews
Patrick Demarchelier is widely regarding as one of, if not the, world's leading fashion photographer of our times. Despite his early years in and around Paris, it was Demarchelier's move to New York that landed him squarely in the sites of publications like Glamour, Elle, Mademoiselle, as well as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar where he enjoyed decade long collaborative relationships.
Like his predecessors, Henri Cartier-Bresson (for whom Demarchelier once worked) and Richard Avedon, Demarchelier has brought the rich and famous to his striking world of black and white portraiture. While not his first book, this Steidl edition is certainly the most complete compendium of his impressive body of work.
During his career, Demarchelier has captured iconic images of both top celebrities and models (the true supermodels) and this 408 page volume shows the best of that work with models (Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Kate Moss) and non-models (Princess Diana, Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Warren Beatty and numerous others) from both his magazine shoots as well as those for a host of corporate ad clients as well. (LouisVuitton, Chanel, L'Oreal, Lancome, Calvin Klein, Versace, Armani, Prada and Gucci have all used him over the years.) Despite it's cover (and unlike other photographers who often rely on intricate poses and props to create their images - Newton, LaChapelle, Leibowitz, Seliger, etc.) Demarchelier's portraits are often disarmingly simple and direct, allowing the essence of the individual to come to the fore. The book itself is laid out in a dramatic and uncomplicated format - a single large (mostly) black and white image on most pages - complimenting the feeling of the photographer's work.
What is surprising, is that given Demarchelier's stature as well as the extent of his work, that there hasn't been a comprehensive, retrospective work like this until now (most of the photographs depicted here are from the 80's and 90's - well over a decade ago.) Regardless, `Patrick Demarchelier' serves as a well done, albeit overdue, collection of one of the top portrait photographers of our time, which means, it is about time, indeed.
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