One of the famous celebrity and fashion photographers on the planet is the legendary French photographer, Patrick Demarchelier.
More than likely you have seen his work as his work has been featured in many of the top fashion magazines, clothing advertising campaigns and also celebrities on books and music albums since the 1970s.
Now, let me first preface what drew me to Demarchelier’s work. For one, it was supermodels. His Vogue 100th Anniversary cover was one of the images that drew me to his work, also I absolutely love looking at Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington, Linda Evanglista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Yasmeen Ghauri, Kate Moss, Linda Mulder, Elaine Irwin, Niki Taylor to name a few.
When it comes to celebrities, his photo of Janet Jackson on “Rolling Stone” was a popular image, along with his photography of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, Julia Roberts and much more.
So, I enjoyed Patrick Demarchelier’s photos but surprisingly, I find myself in 2022, over 20-years later when I first discovered his photography, wanting to purchase his photo books and while, I own a few, I recently decided to go after his earlier books such as “Forms” which was released back in 1998 via Rizzoli.
Now this is a straight-up photography book, no foreword, no writing or discussions of what went into the photo, this is straight up photography, which I was expecting.
The book is broken up into the following chapters: Faces (portraits), Fashions (fashion photograph), Fauna (animals), Folk (culture – photos from various cultures worldwide) and Forms (nude photography, showcasing the body).
So, expect to see photography of big names such as Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Kobe Bryant, Jon Bon Jovi, John Travolta, Princess Diana, Whitney Houston and so much more.
As for fashion models, many of the names I mentioned earlier are featured.
For those who are familiar with Demarchelier’s work from the ’90s, this is the book to get.
It’s important to note that with this book, do know that it includes full frontal nudity. So, for conservative individuals who love photography but have a personal disdain towards displaying books of nudity in their home, then you may not want to put this on your coffee table.
“Forms” is a bigger hardcover book at 12.5 (width) by 14.5 (height) inches with the diameter of one inch as it’s only 216 pages long.
Without the slipcover, the book is black and features the same cover image from the slipcover, with a black spine with the same typeface in gray on the sides.
It really is a wonderful collections of photos as this really covered the age of the supermodels, the big celebrities, music artists and athletes of the time.
Photos are big and many use the entire page or are cropped in order to fit the page without having to alter the image. The majority of the photos are black and white but there are photos featured in color. Binding is also well done.
I have no true gripe, but the fact that there are some pages that there are some photos where one side is an all white page and the other side shows the photography. But that is nitpicking.
While an older photo book, “Forms” still holds up today as one of the better Patrick Demarchelier photo books to have in your collection and a book that you can find affordably in the $20 range.
Patrick Demarchelier’s “Forms” is definitely recommended!
