Patrice de Villiers

Biographies, I’ve written loads of ‘em & they are never easy. To arrive somewhere between over earnest yet showing a semblance of personality/dedication to my chosen craft and somewhere between blowing your own trumpet but still advertising that awards have been won & well crafted work created having had the good fortune to work with many brilliant clients over the years, is always a delicate dance with words.

So, I’ll start with a basic premise I’ve tried to adhere to from day one :

For me the art of still life is making the inanimate, animate, to create an emotional connection between the work and the viewer.

My very first commission was for The Sunday Times magazine, a series of food portraits, which helped me find my creative voice & I’ve worked with them ever since.

From those early images & my eternal thanks to the art director who gave me that career defining first job, lovely commissions flowed from the likes of Selfridges, Harrods, Westfield, Gaggenau, The Telegraph, Conde Nast, & all the major advertising agencies in equal measure. I’ve wrapped cars in pasta bows for Ford, dressed crab claws in stockings for a Las Vegas superstar hotel , shot model made Cornettos in a Moscow basement & draped pasta over rock stars for my charity project ‘LoveMusicLoveFood’ in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.

I’ll hand over at this point to the chef with whom I collaborated at Style magazine & who kindly wrote the foreword to my book…it’s easier to have someone else do the glowing bit :

‘ Seemingly unbound by the regular rules of food photography, she continuously pushes the boundaries of what’s possible…the results are original and exciting & I’ve been a great admirer of her imaginative and fearless style ever since our work at The Sunday Times’

Heston Blumenthal.

And some kind words from collegues in the advertising industry :

‘ Patrice is incredibly vital to each & every project she works on, and she is a leading force on any photoshoot that she takes part in as well as the success that the campaigns achieve’

Laurence( Lolly )Thomson CCO/CoPresident McCann Ldn.

‘ She has the creative & technical know-how to execute any concept…Patrice has an artistic eye that makes everything she photographs extremely captivating and her images always connect with the consumers ’

Ben Cole. Head of Art VCCP Ldn

Ok, that’s enough, I’m blushing…essentially I try to apply the same sense of an alternative vision to whatever I shoot, wether it’s a car headlight with drpping honeycomb, asking Brian May to be the Time Lord of fruit or sticking oatcakes on Louboutin heels. When the images work then all the efforts, thoughts & observations have been worthwhile.

Thank you meanwhile, for taking the time to look at my work and for reading the biography, I hope I haven’t stepped on too many toes in the process of writing it : }

https://www.patricedevilliers.com/