“Patrick takes simple photographs perfectly, which is, of course, immensely difficult,” Anna Wintour wrote in an essay for a Christie’s auction of his work, as reported by The New York Times. “He makes attractive women look beautiful and beautiful women seem real.”
“I like to do the pictures before people get too self-conscious,” Mr. Demarchelier told Keira Knightley for Interview magazine. “I like to be spontaneous and get a shot before the subject thinks too much about it.”
Patrick Demarchelier grew up in Le Havre, France, and had no formal training in photography. As a self-taught, he started taking pictures of his friends and then became an assistant to Hans Feurer, a Swiss photographer who worked with Vogue and helped him create a relationship with the magazine.
Demarchelier became popular and grew up in the industry alongside today’s iconic supermodels and celebrities. His lens is behind the most famous covers, including Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, and Christy Turlington.
“No one understands anything he says,” Coddington told The New York Times in 2016. “But he calls the models ‘bebe’ and says ‘fabulous’ and ‘diveeeeene,’ and he makes them feel beautiful.”
