Pierre et Gilles

Pierre et Gilles (Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard) born 1950 and 1953, have been living and working together in Paris since 1976, influencing contemporary photography definitively.  Although I've always seen myself as strictly a natural landscape photographer, some how these images of their flamboyant glittery work of a dreamy world filled with religious, mythological, iconography symbolism have caught my eye. All sorts of people like movie/music stars, princes and sailors, angels and demons, porn stars and boys next door are shown in their body of work.
They have created portraits for the likes of Marc Almond, Marilyn Manson, Kylie Minogue, Iggy Pop, Nina Hagen, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Madonna, to name just a few. Pierre photographs the models and Gilles retouches and hand-colors the print, highlighting each detail to create a vivid and colorful aesthetic, almost perfect and dream-like.  As stated- “This is a little bit of photo, a little bit of painting. There is the idealization of the sopped moment; Gilles with his brush can go and go back, and there is no time limit.”
Long ago I came across this picture, came in a book with a brief description pointing some details about the juxtaposition between the devil (where the work takes title: "The Devil" ) and the cherubim.