Carli Hermès

Biography
1963 -

About the artist

Carli Hermès (1963) studied photography at the Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy for Visual Arts) in The Hague (Netherlands) and the Bournemouth School of Art in England. He achieved international fame with his advertising photography for brands like Martini, Philips, Nike, Suit Supply and KLM. Hermès has also made photo reports for leading international fashion magazines and portrays (international) celebrities.

Water, fire, stylish interiors and desert landscapes form surreal settings in which dreams appear to come true. The desire to be able to fly, and thus defy gravity, is a recurring theme in Carli Hermès’s images. With bold shapes, colours and human expression he tells a story of and about people.
 
Eroticism and an alienating reality play an important role in his work. It is almost impossible to distinguish between the autonomous artist working independently and the photographer producing an advertising campaign for a client. They stem from each other and flow into one another. Carli Hermès shares this trait with contemporaries like Inez van Lamsweerde and Erwin Olaf.
 
Carli Hermès’s work is acquired by and exhibited in several museums, including the Groninger Museum, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam and the CODA Museum in Apeldoorn.
All artworks