DENIS PIEL (born 1944)
Photographer and filmmaker Denis Piel was born in France in 1944 and raised in Brisbane. He began his photography career in Australia and Europe before moving to New York in 1979, where he was offered a contract by Condé Nast. Over the next decade, he became highly sought after for his sensuous and cinematic editorial photography with clients including VOGUE, GQ, and Vanity Fair. In 1987, he was awarded the Leica Medal of Excellence for Commercial Photography.
As a filmmaker, Piel has created advertisements for Donna Karan and Anne Klein. He directed his first feature-length documentary film, Love is Blind, in 1993. Piel’s work has been published in several monographs, including Moments (Rizzoli, 2012), Down to Earth (2016), Filmscapes (2020), and the upcoming Rosemary (2025). Piel’s photographs are included in the permanent collections of The Victoria & Albert Museum and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Since 2002, Piel has lived and worked at the Chateau de Padiès in southwest France.