test: Press-photographer without a camera, Jean Philippe Delhomme

„Vladimir Kagan“

Fed up with the flow of mass pop illustration I spend more and more time looking for something more mature, unique. Perhaps these words are too serious for this superficial and quite commercial branch of graphics, but without giving prominence to this, it is possible to enrich one‘s mind. Today‘s mood encouraged me to keep away from computer graphics, sweet colors of pop surrealism, also the softness and excellence of the Japanese kidult lines, whose infinite assortment is thrusted to us by the mirror of our times - the internet. I wanted something playful, natural and then the illustration above came to my mind, whose author already almost 30 years (if not more) with a pencil and a brush, with mild strokes tells about ironic lives of (usually famous) people.

„Francois — Marie Banier“

Jean Philippe Delhomme can be called an odd photographer, but he emphatically avoids photography. In early life he was offered a job in the fashion magazine „Glamour“, which pulled the illustrator into the whirl of upper class, famous designers and high fashion. Good J.P.Delhomme‘s sense of humor broke through with ironic illustrations, depicting often snobbish life of those days‘ high class. The French wouldn't be the French if they did not value this, because they never miss a chance to laugh from themselves or, better still, from others. That is how the young Jean found himself. He spent the 80s visiting various exhibitions, parties, presentations of collections, he recorded everything in his mind through the lens of his eye, like a photographer with an invisible camera, and later he put everything on a simple sheet of paper.

„The Mark Hotel“

I love absurd declarative statements, the way people are usually quoted in magazines or the lifestyle mantras one can read through headlines and titles. And I like to apply those declarative statements to the situation and the characters I draw, pretending like it's normal language. — J.P.Delhomme

New period of the illustrator‘s life began when „Glamour“ finished it‘s activity. In 1993 J.P.D moved to New York, the capital of fashion and everything that glitters. There it did not take long for him to meet people from „Barneys“ who assisted him in creating a promotional campaign of great success for this company. Afterwards all roads for J.P.Dellhomme opened.

You might get an impression that the author could simply sell himself and become a vain dandy, attending the most expensive parties and sipping the most expensive champagne in them, but this did not happen. Although the majority of illustrator‘s time passes among the most famous and luxurious people in the world, he carries on making fun from himself and from others. Recently, a blog called "The Unkown Hipster" appeared in the internet, in which J.P.D. reveals his alter ego. The drawer again refuses to take any photos and uses fictitious illustrations instead, telling the adventures of the unknown hipster, his meetings with celebrities and other situations of life.

„The unknown hipster“

„The unknown hipster“

The author is looking for ideas to his pictures in extraordinary parts of every town, which are visited by arrogant persons, standing out by their posture; but he might also spend much time at the working table, just creating characters from his imagination. The illustrator jokes, that the majority of his characters are reflections of his own inner characters, which are hidden in reality.

J.P.D considers himself an abstract painter, he enjoys clearly visible strokes and an unpolished mark of an accomplished process. J.P.D. desires to reveal as much as possible in his paintings while using the least of details, that is how, according to him, the real physiology and character of the persona created is shown.

„Pierre with anonymous Art hipster“ and „Pierre with "Following the right hand of Louise Brooks in Beauty contest"“

„The place was packed with Art hipsters. I had to fiercely fight my way in. It was not easy, because most of the girls were very tall, and strong. My old sneakers were pierced by high heels several time until I found shelter next to a wall projection of a silent black and white film footage featuring Freud (Sigmund, not Lucian) chatting (and possibly smoking a cigar) outdoors.“ — extract from "Unknown Hipster" blog

Artis's webpage.

Jean Philippe Delhomme