Patrick Demarchelier, Fashion Photographer, Dies at 78

by Melissa Folmann April 05, 2022.

Patrick Demarchelier, a photographer whose work helped define fashion and celebrity in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, died on Thursday. He was 78.

His death was announced on his Instagram page. The announcement did not say where he died or specify the cause.

The personal portraitist of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the first non-Briton to become an official royal photographer, Mr. Demarchelier was most famous for his work with Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and he was the subject of a major bidding war between the glossies. Indeed, he became so synonymous with Vogue that his name made a cameo in the 2006 film “The Devil Wears Prada,” from which “Get me Patrick” was a much-quoted line.

“Patrick takes simple photographs perfectly, which is of course immensely difficult,” Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, wrote in a 2015 essay for a Christie’s auction of his work. “He makes attractive women look beautiful and beautiful women seem real.”