"If it is not always possible to decipher what Patrick is saying," writes Anna Wintour in her introduction to Patrick Demarchelier's new monograph (SteidlDangin). "His pictures most definitely speak loud and clear." At Soho's Clic Gallery last night I got to experience both observations firsthand while speaking to the French-born, New York-based lensman, who was dressed down in jeans, sneakers and a grey hoodie for the US launch of the career-spanning book. Like Anna, I found myself struggling to catch every third word amidst the mob scene that was descending upon Demarchelier (one girl nearly broke a wine glass on him), but he remained clear when defining how he masters his model- and magazine-defining images. "I like to shoot very fast, before they have a chance to think about their expressions," says Demarchelier, admitting that while he was working as Princess Diana's official photographer, "We gave her a little more time because we loved her."

The eight-pound tome also contains some 400 arresting images of lone Baobab trees in Tanzania; Knicks legend Patrick Ewing cracking a rare smile; Richard Avedon working his own camera; and a brilliantly staged portrait of Yves Saint Laurent with Pierre Bergé from 2004; not to mention hundreds of beautiful, primarily nude women. "More than anything he knows how to make women beautiful with nothing but a camera," says longtime retoucher Pascal Dangin, who curated the September 2008 retrospective, Patrick Demarchelier: Images et Mode at the Petit Palais, which birthed the book. "It's not easy. As he talks to you in the beginning of a session, you don't think you're being photographed, then just when you think about starting to pose it's over and he's got the best picture of you. But that takes a ton of preparation." For his part, Dangin was tasked with choosing the order of the book's images so they "introduced people to [Demarchelier] in the most pure form." Which is why you'll find a blooming profile of Christy Turlington from a 1992 British Vogue shoot on the cover followed immediately by a whimsical pic of Demarchelier's dachshund Puffy. Which begs the question, does Demarchelier have a favorite subject? "Not really. I don't stop at my past, I like new work," he says. "I like what I'm doing tomorrow."