X-Ray

World renowned makeup artist François Nars started photographing just two years ago. His vision: create an enormous art book with over two hundred richly stylized presentations of elegance, featuring his favorite personalities from the worlds of fashion, design, film—even passersby on the street: people who personified to Nars the very notion of bold and audacious chic…X-Ray.

“This collection of portraits is not about fashion, though fashion is present. The world of the stylish is disappearing, diluted from wine to water by the media. This book is my attempt to distill that elite at the turn of the third millennium. I had the privilege to photograph many of my icons who filled my dreams as a boy. But style is not simply the purview of the privileged. I also had the pleasure of capturing on film people who aren’t famous, have no designer clothes, and would never be seen at an awards show. Rich or poor, well known or unknown, of all different ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds, each of my subjects has a style and personality that I felt deserved to be recognized.

“In these X-Rays I tried to expose each person’s individuality in one true moment.”

—François Nars

François Nars is creative director and president of NARS cosmetics, with over one hundred boutiques worldwide. His work is featured on the runways of designers like Versace, Valentino, Dolce + Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, and Karl Lagerfeld, and on the covers of prestigious magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Italian Vogue, W, ELLE, and Allure. He has collaborated with such legendary photographers as Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, and Patrick Demarchelier. Born in France, Nars lives and works in New York City.

Foreword André Leon Talley
Art Direction by Sam Shahid