Denis Piel

Career

Denis Piel was born in France in 1944 and grew up in Australia. He is best known for his work as a fash­ion pho­tog­ra­pher for Vogue, GQ, and Vanity Fair dur­ing the 1980s. In 1987, he received the Leica Medal of Excellence for his achieve­ments in adver­tis­ing photography. 

Visual Style

Following his suc­cess in pho­tog­ra­phy, Denis began explor­ing the world of cin­ema and founded Jupiter Films in 1985, a film pro­duc­tion com­pany that quickly gained inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion. In 1995, he directed his first feature-​length doc­u­men­tary, Love Is Blind.

Major Series and Works

In 2012, Rizzoli pub­lished Moments, a book bring­ing together Denis Piel’s fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phy and por­trait work. Down to Earth was pub­lished in 2016. His books Exposed, Filmscapes, and Platescapes were released in June 2020. 

Recognition

Piel’s pho­tographs are part of the per­ma­nent col­lec­tions of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, as well as numer­ous pri­vate collections.
Denis Piel now lives in New York, United States.

Reading the Work

Denis Piel’s work finds its bal­ance in an ele­gant, nar­ra­tive, and cin­e­matic approach to pho­tog­ra­phy, atten­tive to ges­tures, atti­tudes, and the inti­macy of his sub­jects. It is dis­tin­guished by an abil­ity to bring together edi­to­r­ial sophis­ti­ca­tion, nat­ural pres­ence, and a strong sense of visual sto­ry­telling. Viewing his images rewards close atten­tion to nuance: a com­po­si­tional detail, a way of main­tain­ing dis­tance from the sub­ject, a qual­ity of light, or a tex­ture often reveals their deeper meaning.