Victor Demarchelier Pictures Himself as a Teddybear

SELF-PORTRAIT, NEW YORK, 2008 (STUDY #2).
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND CLIC

Tonight Victor Demarchelier, the talented, non-Oedipalizing progeny of Patrick Demarchelier, opens “Creating Images,” a show of work from his last three years. The show is focused on personal, unpublished work. “It is a very intimate show: Each piece deals with something that is very familiar to me and something that I have struggled with.” Which means portraits of the handsome photographer with his glamazon ex-girlfriend, model Caroline Trentini. It means “keeping to my look,” a high-gloss black-and-white surface that can also get up-close and even personal without looking fetishistic. “I try to show things the way I want them to be seen,” says of the work in this show, rather than the way things should be seen, as in a fashion photograph. The way Demarchelier himself wants to be seen is clear in a self-portrait featuring the teddybear, Nalla, given to him by his grandparents. With pieces of fur matted and lost, Nalla is an index of the photographer’s attentions. “I think that in many ways this picture is a more accurate representation of myself then the actual self portrait [in the show].” Family means a lot in the Demarchelier clan.

CREATING IMAGES OPENS TONIGHT, 6–9 PM. CLIC GALLERY IS LOCATED AT 424 BROOME STREET, NEW YORK.