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Having heroes is a dangerous business. Some of them go and die on you, while others fall into disgrace. French fashion and portrait photographer Patrick Demarchelier has managed to do both, and it\u2019s hard to know how to feel. Demarchelier was among the first photographers I idolised when my photographic brain was being slowly moulded in my teenage years.<\/p>\n
Having exhausted the collection of books between 770 and 779 on the shelves between Printmaking and Music in our local library, I resorted to actually buying photography books and requesting them for birthdays. I think I saw the American Photography Master Series Fashion Photography by Patrick Demarchelier advertised by a photo book club in AP and, hoping it might inspire me, signed up and bought it.<\/p>\n
Along with the fashion pictures by Tony McGee and others in my parents\u2019 daily newspapers, this book really caught my attention and gave me something to aspire to. Of course, I never went into fashion or beauty photography, and the subjects I have photographed in the intervening years have been quite different. I also have had
\nfewer Vogue covers than Monsieur Demarchelier.<\/p>\n\t\t
![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/rgbPicture-OF-Patrick-Demarchelier_By-Margaret_Gibbons_amd.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\tPatrick Demarchelier, photographed by his assistant Margaret Gibbons<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
I do however hope that he has influenced me somewhat, not so much with the glitz and glamour of his celebrity sitters, but with the natural-looking images he created of them. As far away from the kitchen table in my family home as they are, I felt I could relate to the people in Demarchelier\u2019s pictures. He had somehow got beyond the gloss and the marketing and was able to present the real person having a real life, so we could feel as if we knew them a bit. That was his magic for me then, and a magic he retained and was well known for throughout his long and distinguished career.<\/p>\n
Me Too<\/h3>\n
I\u2019m certain Demarchelier\u2019s career would have been even longer and more distinguished had he not had to duck out of view in the last four or five years after he was named as one of many fashion photographers alleged to have behaved inappropriately towards models. In the aftermath of the #MeToo explosion in the film industry, the Boston Globe newspaper published an investigation in which it interviewed models and workers in the fashion business who claimed they had been sexually harassed, assaulted and raped by photographers, agents and executives.<\/p>\n
Seven women, including a former assistant, accused Demarchelier of sexual misconduct, and while he said they were lying, the publisher Cond\u00e9 Nast announced it would no longer be working with him, and his career rapidly petered out. Demarchelier was never charged with anything and he never got to defend himself in court \u2013 just as his accusers never got to state their cases \u2013 so we lack the certainty of the Harvey Weinstein verdict. \u2018People lie and they tell stories,\u2019 he said when approached by\u00a0the Boston Globe.<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tChristy Turlington with rose, 1990<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
\u2018It\u2019s ridiculous,\u2019 he said, adding that some models \u2018get frustrated if they don\u2019t work\u2019. With the accusations coming out at the beginning of 2018, his official Instagram account had dried up by the summer, and it has since posted only archival images and posts about exhibitions. He was 74 years old when the story broke, so perhaps he just decided to retire and couldn\u2019t be bothered with it all any more. Or perhaps he didn\u2019t have a choice.<\/p>\n
Now, though, we are left not knowing if it is okay to like his pictures, in the same way that it might be uncomfortable listening to Michael Jackson\u2019s Thriller, and we have to decide if the art is separate from the artist. I\u2019m hoping that it is, otherwise if I have to stop listening to and looking at the work of people whose personal behaviour we might disapprove of, even the drunken, drug-taking, philandering Old Masters will have to go.<\/p>\n
Paris to New York<\/h3>\n
Despite years of working in New York and London, and with predominantly English speakers, Demarchelier never lost a heavy French accent that made him very difficult to understand for those not used to him. Hairdresser Sam McKnight and former Vogue UK editor Alexandra Shulman both say they regularly had to translate Demarchelier\u2019s \u2018indecipherable\u2019 English for clients and models.<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tKate Moss, 2010<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
Born just outside Paris on 21 August 1943 and brought up in Le Havre, Demarchelier was one of five brothers, whose mother was half French and half English. His father worked in a travelling circus, but left the family behind when he moved to Africa, and Demarchelier\u2019s mother remarried. Her new husband bought a 17-year-old Patrick his first camera \u2013 a Kodak \u2013 which inspired him to learn to process and print his films.<\/p>\n
He hadn\u2019t been an enthusiastic student at school but threw himself into photography, shooting portraits of his friends and weddings at the weekend, and got himself a job in a local lab printing passport pictures. In the early 1960s, aged 20, Demarchelier moved to Paris to work in another lab, this time printing news images. He moved to a model agency where he was employed as the in-house photographer, and then moved once again to work as an assistant to the Swiss fashion photographer Hans Feurer. Feurer shot for Elle, Marie Claire and Nova magazines, which gave Demarchelier a leg-up in that world, as well as introductions to editors, art editors and fashion houses.<\/p>\n
In 1975 Demarchelier tried his hand in New York, but his style was considered \u2018too European\u2019. It took a while for him to find success until he was taken on by publisher Cond\u00e9 Nast, where he shot campaigns and fashion stories for all the major fashion brands, both privately and through the host of magazines he covered for the publisher. He did very well there and really rocketed in the 1980s. He remained with Cond\u00e9 Nast until the early 1990s, when he became the lead photographer for Hearst Corporation, which published Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, O and Esquire. A \u2018seven-figure sum\u2019 enticed him back to Cond\u00e9 Nast in 2004.<\/p>\n\t\t
<\/a>\t\t\tGisele B\u00fcndchen, 1999<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
Famous faces, and more<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s almost pointless to try to list all the famous people Demarchelier photographed during his career. In short, if you were a supermodel in the 1980s or 1990s, you would have at some stage been in front of his lens for a magazine shoot, an advertising campaign, or for one of his books. You may also have been shot alongside him at a fashion party, backstage or in some exotic location. The list of fashion icons he shot really is endless, and I\u2019m sure I don\u2019t need to mention Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington or Naomi Campbell to remind you who the faces of the 1980s and \u201990s were.<\/p>\n
His style also attracted fashion-conscious celebrities, too, with Madonna, Janet Jackson, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, Johnny Hallyday, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Prince and Tom Cruise all sitting for him at some stage for magazine covers, publicity and album covers. The political elite weren\u2019t unaware of the Demarchelier effect either, and his portraits of Michelle Obama, Cherie Blair and Hillary Clinton gave them a glamour and an approachability they would have valued a good deal for their public profile.<\/p>\n
If you didn\u2019t know who Patrick Demarchelier was before, you certainly would have done by 1990<\/strong>, when he photographed Diana, Princess of Wales, with a new short and very stylish hairdo for the cover of Vogue. Shot in stunning black & white in a plain white dress \u2013 which could actually have been a sheet \u2013 pearls, tiara and a beaming smile, the picture caused an instant sensation around the world.<\/p>\n\t\t Gigi Hadid for Vogue UK, 2016<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n It made Demarchelier a household name and empowered the princess at a difficult time in her life. She is quoted as saying the pictures were designed to \u2018disarm my enemies\u2019 and to give her an added element of independence in the world beyond the royal family. And they certainly did that. Diana had seen Demarchelier\u2019s work in Vogue the year before and asked him to come to Highgrove to photograph her.<\/p>\n The picture that had caught her attention was of Vanessa Duve on the beach with her towel wrapped around Demarchelier\u2019s son Victor. Victor was much the same age as Prince William, and Diana liked the casual and atmospheric nature of the picture \u2013 which appeared as the cover shot on the UK August 1989 issue. When Diana\u2019s portraits were done, the then Vogue UK editor Liz Tilberis \u2013 who was a friend of both Diana and Demarchelier \u2013 asked to use one on the cover of Demarchelier went on to photograph the princess on many other occasions, including for another Vogue cover for the October 1994 issue and an especially striking cover story for Vanity Fair. The connection between all the pictures taken by Demarchelier of Diana is that they all make us feel closer to the subject. They present her as a normal, relatable, if very glamorous and elegant, person.<\/p>\n And this was a crucial factor in forming and reinforcing Diana\u2019s relationship with the outside world and her \u2018People\u2019s Princess\u2019 characterisation. The style of these shots has heavily influenced the images of the new generation of royals, particularly those of the Duchess of Cambridge.<\/p>\n\t\t Diana, Princess of Wales for Vogue, 1990<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n It is remarkable that all of the images made available to AP for this article are in black & white. If you look at Demarchelier\u2019s Instagram account<\/a> (it\u2019s well worth it) you will note that the majority of images shown there are also in black & white. He shot a lot of colour too, but the \u201960s feel of his black & white \u2013 printed with shades of Helmut Newton contrast and tonality, and some Bailey-esque white backgrounds \u2013 perhaps best suits his cool Gallic style.<\/p>\n The pictures are alive and striking, and none can be ignored. They feature astonishing examples of beauty, sensuality, luxury and impossible cool even when shot without the assistance of props or location. They are bright, stylish and mostly happy. The sitters are still very chic, but they can smile and look as though they are having a good time in front of the camera.<\/p>\n This is one of the things that attracted me to Demarchelier\u2019s work in the first place, that the subjects looked real, that they smiled a lot, that they looked healthy and that he presented them as people you\u2019d like to know. His 2005 Pirelli calendar was a bit dark and mysterious \u2013 and black & white \u2013 but most of his work was light and airy.<\/p>\n Rather than being purely about fashion, Demarchelier\u2019s images have a cultural element to them that\u2019s possible because of his skills with people. The individuals portrayed in his pictures shine through the clothes (even when they aren\u2019t wearing any) and the marketing, and many take on the weight of portraits. In recognition of the importance of his work the French Minister of Culture awarded him L\u2019Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Literature) in 2007 for his \u2018significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields\u2019.<\/p>\n It is said that he was easy to work with and that he didn\u2019t have a massive ego. He preferred a small team rather than an entourage, and was happy to move lights around himself. The Daily Mail quoted Alexandra Shulman as saying \u2018\u2026unlike many Vogue photographers, he wanted to deliver what you wanted. It was one of the secrets of his success.<\/p>\n\t\t Christy and mouse, 1999<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n \u2018Patrick had little of the ego of most fashion photographers. His aim was to achieve what was asked for in the best possible way \u2013 rather than to swerve it to a vision of his own, possibly something more complicated, dark and edgy. Instead, he appreciated a conventional notion of womanly beauty and through his skill was able to bring out the very best of whoever was in front of his lens. I always admired the beauty and casual sexiness he brought to his photographs.\u2019<\/p>\n Whatever may or may not have happened between Demarchelier and those who accused him of misconduct, he passed from this world still well-loved by fellow photographers, models and those he worked with throughout his career. If the comments below the announcement of his death on Instagram are anything to go He is said to have been happy to take a risk with new faces and to give people a chance. His death notice has attracted over 4,300 comments, almost all of which, as far as I can see, regard him in a very positive light, and come from leading figures from his beginnings to the modern age, including Amber Valletta, his long-time hairdressing partner Sam McKnight, Gigi Hadid, Christy Turlington, Christie Brinkley, Gisele B\u00fcndchen, Greg Williams and Kate Hudson, among many others.<\/p>\n I rather like a quote from another former editor of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour, who wrote in an essay for Christie\u2019s auction house, \u2018Patrick takes simple photographs perfectly, which is of course immensely difficult. He makes attractive women look beautiful and beautiful women seem real.\u2019<\/em> That sums him up for me rather well.<\/p>\n Patrick Demarchelier died on 31 March 2022, aged 78.<\/strong><\/p>\n The exhibition Beauty of Women III, which includes works by Patrick Demarchelier, is currently on view until 8 June \u2013 visit camerawork.de\/en\/virtualgallery<\/a><\/p>\n Featured image: Christy, Linda and Naomi, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Tribute to Michael Putland two years on<\/a><\/p>\n Michele McNally: tributes to legendary picture editor<\/a><\/p>\n Follow AP on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, and YouTube<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" French photographer Patrick Demarchelier, who died in March, was one of the greats of recent decades, and injected a strong sense of personality into the fashion industry, says Damien Demolder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":166922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[3165,1168,3164,910],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-166913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iconic-images","tag-diana","tag-fashion-photography","tag-patrick-demarchelier","tag-tribute"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>\t\t\t
\nthe magazine. And the rest is history.<\/p>\n<\/a>\t\t\tStyle and substance<\/h3>\n
<\/a>\t\t\tStill loved<\/h3>\n
\nby, there are plenty of former supermodels, editors and assistants who thought he was a fantastic person to work alongside, and many credit him with giving
\nthem the break they so needed at the beginnings of their own careers.<\/p>\n
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