"Pierre et Gilles form a couple, an entity whose work is inseparable from their life and everyday universe. They create portraits of stars and unknowns in unique hand-painted photographs, through an established process:
- they first draw a sketch of the work they have imagined together, according to the model and the role they want him to play;
- they conceive the entire production from the set made with carefully selected materials and accessories, collected worldwide during travels or shopped all around. They also realize the lighting in order to animate and magnify the subject by a play of angles and filters. They select or even realize themselves the costumes, make-up and hairdressing, sometimes with the help of the best specialists;
- Pierre photographs the scenery they have imagined together. Gilles then paints the unique print with successive layers of paint and glaze, exceeding reality. It results in a unique, perfectly aesthetic image that definitely cannot be done by any kind of digital software;
- finally, they conceive the specific frame that is an integral part of the work. Actually, they consider the frame as the extension of the image's universe ;
Everything is considered in order to achieve an aesthetic perfection and a vision of an enchanted world, corresponding to their dreamed reality. As they state: "This is a little bit of photo, a little bit of painting. There is the idealization of the sopped moment; Gilles with his brush can go and go back, and there is no time limit."" SOURCE
