Patrıc Demarchelier

Patrick Demarchelier was born in 1944. For his seventeenth birthday, his stepfather brought him his first Eastman Kodak camera. Demarchelier learned how to develop film, retouch negatives and began shooting friends and weddings. After growing up in the northern seaside town of Le Havre, moving to Paris to work in photo labs as an assistant, Demarchelier began his dream run at British Vogue in the early ‘80s when it was commanded by the likes of Liz Tilberis and Anna Wintour, talent-spotters of the finest water who went on to helm Harper’s Bazaar and American Vogue in the early ‘90s.  Since the late 1970’s he has shot the covers for nearly every major fashion magazine. Demarchelier also shot international advertising campaigns for Dior, Louis Vuitton, Celine, TAG Heuer, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Lacoste, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. In 1989 he became the official photographer of Princess Diana. He later became the first non-Britain to photograph the British Royal Family. Since 1992 he has worked with Harper’s Bazaar, becoming its premier photographer. Demarchelier was awarded the contract for the 2005 prestigious Pirelli Calendar. In 2007, Mrs. Christine Albanel, Minister of Culture in France, honored Patrick Demarchelier as an Officer de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His book Patrick Demarchelier Photographs was such a success that it was printed a second time after it 12,000 copies were sold. For a long time Patrick Demarchelier didn’t want to expose his work in galleries, much less sell it, until he was convinced otherwise by one of his art collector friends from New York. At that point, he said exposing in galleries felt like: “the beginning of a new career.”  Demarchelier has lived in New York City since 1975, and is considered today one of the top fashion photographers in the world.