ABOUT

PATRIZIO DI RENZO

If photography brought truth and realism to art in the 19th century, then today Patrizio Di Renzo explores the art of photography to create illusion and unreality. Through his photographs, video, film and creative direction – in which nothing is ever quite what it seems to be – Di Renzo opens a window onto wondrous worlds of myth and magic, dreams and desires.
Born in Switzerland, and classically trained as an industrial photographer before moving into the realm of fashion and advertising, Di Renzo now lives between Zurich and New York as a photographer and creative director for a number of luxury brands.

Like the dreams that inspire him with their shifting scenarios, Patrizio Di Renzo and his work demonstrate a passion for stylistic dynamism, moving between disciplines, ideas and images, without boundaries. In his photographs Di Renzo creates pictures that lure with lyrical beauty and compel with an erotic edge. His images are sophisticated yet provocative. Imbued with a contemporary fashion aesthetic, touched with surrealism, Di Renzo images are layered with depths, reflections and references, visible to those who know how to look, how to see.  Patrizio Di Renzo calls these illusory layers “inner truths”, saying that all his images are, in some way, self-portraits.  The photographer becomes storyteller: images are Di Renzo’s language; nothing is as it first appears. Everything is an illusion, an invitation to escape the mundane, the ordinary, the everyday, to be transported to a space filled with dreams – a space in which the audience becomes a part of the dream.

Patrizio Di Renzo has published two highly acclaimed books of photographs: Portraits of Illusions (Edition Assouline 2005), a collection of eight short stories shot around the world from Ireland to New York and the Seychelles.  Merlin’s Dream (Edition Zauberkind 2010) re-imagined the world of Merlin, the Arthurian alchemist, through the magician’s dreams, staged with flowers, allusive and provocative.  He is currently working on a new book with the working title „INVISIBLE“, exploring concepts of beauty, physical and emotional, inside and out, challenging social attitudes towards ideals of beauty.

Words by VIVIENNE BECKER

Patrizio Di Renzo is a Phase One Ambassador since 2016

Through his 25 year career, Patrizio Di Renzo has worked with leading avantgarde designers, actors, models and artists including, amongst others, Chloë Sevigny, Natalia Vodianova, Mads Mikkelsen, Issey Miyake, Tsumori Chisato, Lalique, Bentley, Luisa Cerano and many more.