Denis Piel: Photography, Fashion, and Flowers

Yesterday, I launched a brand new episode of the Sighs and Whispers podcast—a dialog with photographer and filmmaker Denis Piel. Below is an introduction to Denis—you possibly can take heed to our dialogue on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

If you’ve ever browsed by way of a Nineteen Eighties situation of Vogue, you’ve possible seen Denis Piel’s work—combining storytelling and images, his editorials have a cinematic, narrative high quality that unfolds throughout the pages (scroll under to see a number of full tales). Contracted with Condé Nast from 1979 to 1990, he shot greater than 1000 editorial spreads and movie star portraits for the American, German, Italian, French, and British editions of Vogue, together with Vanity Fair, Self, and GQ.

His story started in France, the place he was born to members of the French resistance in 1944. After the conflict, his household moved to Australia to start out over. As he spoke about in our interview, Piel started a photographic profession whereas nonetheless a teen. He opened his personal studio in Brisbane in 1966, largely capturing promoting work. A small job for Vogue Australia led him to maneuver to Melbourne, the place he started to give attention to vogue images. After transferring to Europe within the early Nineteen Seventies, he shot for most of the hippest younger vogue magazines, like French Elle and Honey. After a quick time specializing in artwork images, know-how, and holograms, in 1979, Piel moved to New York, the place his work for the New York Times Magazine introduced him to the eye of Alexander Liberman, the legendary artwork director of American Vogue. Liberman grew to become a mentor to Piel, bringing him into the Condé Nast fold and giving him the type of contract that each photographer desires of and few obtain (Avedon and Penn are a few of the solely others).

Sensual and cinematic, his vogue and sweetness images all the time appeared to be telling a narrative, hinting at a mysterious narrative. For Piel, he discovered inspiration within the work of administrators like François Truffaut and Stanley Kubrick, moderately than different photographers. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that the world of cinema got here to him; in 1983, Denis Piel was requested to be technical advisor on the James Toback movie Exposed, which starred Ian McShane as a vogue photographer modeled on Piel. Inspired by his expertise on set, he determined to start out directing; in 1985, Piel established a movie manufacturing firm, Jupiter Films, and commenced capturing commercials, most famously with Rosemary McGrotha for Donna Karan. He was awarded the Leica Medal of Excellence for Commercial Photography in 1987. After he left Condé Nast to focus on directing in 1990, Denis continued to shoot commercials whereas additionally making a feature-length documentary, Love is Blind. Following blind {couples} as they fell in love and married, it premiered in 1995. In the early 2000s, Denis and his household left New York and moved completely to a Renaissance chateau in South-West France, Château de Padiès. There, he grew to become deeply inquisitive about sustainable agriculture.

Since then, he has centered on artwork images, a lot of it impressed by the Chateau’s gardens and native atmosphere. Many of his photographic collection have been exhibited and revealed as books. Moments, the primary monograph of Piel’s work, was revealed by Rizzoli in September 2012. In 2020, Piel revealed three books: EXPOSED, FILMSCAPES, and PLATESCAPES. He continues to {photograph}, primarily specializing in his Padièscapes collection; described by his NYC gallery, Staley-Wise, as “colorful and abstracted,” the Padièscapes are “work which celebrates nature in flowers and gardens. These images are a departure from the fashion pictures of Piel’s early career, but reflect his continued interest in the environment and humanity.”

I’ve lengthy cherished the narrative energy of his vogue tales and have all the time wished to know extra about his private historical past in images. I first reached out to Denis in 2018 to interview him for this podcast. There have been many emails forwards and backwards over time, making an attempt to set one thing up, however we lastly met and recorded this dialog in March 2025 when he was in New York for an exhibition of his images on the Staley-Wise Gallery. In our podcast conversation, we spoke about rising up in Australia within the Fifties, his introduction to images, organising his personal studio, and the way vogue images introduced him from Australia to Europe, and finally, to New York City and Conde Nast. Denis advised me all about life in Nineteen Eighties New York, the enchantment of constructing motion pictures, and the assorted picture collection and books he’s made during the last 20 years, many impressed by and celebrating the character of his dwelling.