This image appears in the book, "denis piel - MOMENTS" published by Rizzoli 2012.

"Famous for his hyper-real, cinematic images, Denis Piel’s lens catches women off guard, engaged in sensual moments that are filled with magic and curiosity. Known as one of the wonderboys of fashion photography of the 1980s, Piel and his style and aesthetic have influenced many photographers today." -Rizzoli

Denis Piel (b. 1944) is a photographer and film-maker currently living and working in southwestern France. Piel was born in France during the Second World War to Serge and Lily Piel, activists in the French Resistance. At the end of the war Piel’s parents emigrated with their children to Australia to begin a new life. In Brisbane and later Melbourne, Piel began working in photography before moving to Europe in the early 1970's. Rising to prominence in the field of fashion photography, Piel moved to New York when offered a contract by Alexander Liberman and subsequently worked as a Condé Nast photographer for a decade, shooting mainly for Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair and Self, during which time he won the Leica Medal for Excellence in Commercial Photography 1987. He also began producing commercials, notably the iconic New York campaign for Donna Karan and The Wool Board campaign, Australia. In 1989 Piel left Condé Nast to concentrate on film. He continued with his commercial advertising work both in film and stills during this period, however he stopped shooting editorial work except occasionally. Piel produced and directed his first feature length documentary Love is Blind in the early 1990's. The progression into independent film-making inspired Piel to set up Jupiter Films, a film production company; he also set up Umbershoot and the theideasbank, vehicles which would enable people to work together collaboratively. In the early 2000's Piel and his family moved permanently to Lempaut in the South West of France to live and work at Château de Padiès, a renaissance Château which they have been restoring since 1992. Padiès and the local environment have become a source of inspiration for Piel and are central to his current photographic practice. In September 2012 Rizzoli published a retrospective of Piel’s work shot between 1979 and 2007. Piel’s eclectic approach to his work with a disregard for categorizing work as commercial or personal has generated a diverse body of work comprising projects which sit in dialogue with one another. Piel’s photos are in the permanent collection of The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Museum of Fine Art, Boston as well as in numerous private collections including BES photo collection.