I Have Patrick

"Did Patrick Demarchelier confirm?" barked dragon boss, Miranda Priestly to rookie assistant, Andy Sachs in the movie, The Devil Wears Prada which led to much confusion on her part. First assistant Emily saved the day by calling him and coolly shouting out from her office, "I have Patrick." All this commotion left me to wonder exactly who this Patrick fellow was. After some research I found out quite a few things, French born, Patrick Demarchelier is a hot shot photographer who has been in the business for over 40 years. During that time he has shot the covers for just about every major fashion magazine as well as covers of Rolling Stone, Life and Newsweek. He has also produced high profile ad campaigns for Revlon, Chanel, Calvin Klein and The Gap and shot images of A list celebrities including the ultimate celeb Princess Diana who personally requested that Demarchelier take her picture back in 1991. Demarchelier is simply regarded as one of the best fashion photographers today.

Not bad for a guy who grew up in a small village near Paris and was more interested in fishing and climbing trees. It all changed when his stepfather gave him a Kodak camera for his seventeenth birthday and suddenly Demarchelier knew exactly what he wanted to with his life. After learning his craft in Paris on a variety of French, German and Italian publications, Demarchelier took himself off to New York and began to build up his client list. Although clients could not understand a word he said they were captivated by his work and soon he was working regularly for Vogue, Mademoiselle, Glamour and Brit Vogue.

Every successful photographer has a USP and Demarchelier's strengths is the approachability that he brings to his pictures particularly when shooting models for covers. His images hold a breezy and understated elegance which at the same time possess a realistic and thoughtful outlook. Throughout his long career Demarchelier has been responsible for creating the most pivotal images in pop culture. From the cover of Janet Jackson's album, Madonna dressed in leather with a cigarette hanging from her mouth taken for the cover of French magazine, Photo to Princess Diana on the cover of British Vogue. The icing on the cake? Appearing in the Sex and the City film, shooting soon to be bride Carrie Bradshaw for American Vogue. Talk about art imitating life.

Here is a clip from Sex and the City: The Movie.

Patrick Demarchelier resides with his wife Mia and their three sons where they divide their time between their family homes in Manhattan and St Barts.

If you would like to see more of Patrick's work then just check out his website here.

All images taken by Patrick Demarchelier.