Benoit Malphettes has found freedom in reclaiming his creative expression with fine art photography.
Benoit Malphettes (1946–present) is a French-American photographer born in Bordeaux. His passion for photography was sparked early. At the age of six, Benoit received a Kodak Brownie camera and learned to develop his film in a closet at home. As a teen, his mother took him to the Paris fashion shows featuring Coco Chanel (always sitting in her legendary stairwell), Yves Saint Laurent, (in his first studio on rue Spontini) and Christian Dior—an experience that shaped his career.
After graduating cum laude from the Jesuit School of Tivoli, his mentor, Marie-Louise Bousquet of Harper’s Bazaar, introduced him to French Vogue, where he began producing spreads and covers. In 1967, JeanLoup Sieff advised Benoit that the center of fashion photography was in New York , so he subsequently moved to the Chelsea as a permanent resident. There he met Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, whose inspirations would last a lifetime. They displayed the technical knowledge that Benoit would implement to set his work apart from his peers. The most critical of these was the embrace of the 8x10 large format medium and the intricacies of studio workflow. Benoit created full spreads and covers for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Glamour. While working in NY , Benoit decided to relocate to LA where he was the first to successfully bring fashion photography to the West Coast at a time when the photography scene there was predominantly album covers.
Establishing a studio in Downtown LA, Benoit began working as the primary photographer with the clothing manufacturers and the department stores such as Bullocks, Robinson and I.Magnin with which he would continue to build a prosperous relationship for the rest of his career.
He worked with the NY modeling agencies, and directly with Eileen Ford and Johnny Casablanca of Elite, who gave him access to the top models in the industry. Names like Shelly Smith, Cindy Crawford, Iman, Renee Simonsen, and many more, brought talents that paired with Benoit’s created stunning imagery.
In 2001 Benoit married the renowned Creative Director Katherine Burns. They retired to Riverside in 2008 due to her health concerns.
His latest work, “Open to Interpretation,” is a series of introspective still lifes exhibited at the Riverside County Museum and featured in ArtDoc, Conceptual Vision and other publications.
In 2018, his work was acquired by the New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for their major exhibit “Is Fashion Modern”.