One might expect Pierre and Gilles, partners for nearly three decades in life, love and art, to be as flamboyant as the images in their painted photographs, and as extroverted as their visual portfolio suggests.
After all, they have photographed practically all the icons of our time - from Catherine Deneuve to Madonna. The rest of their subjects have been models and friends - mainly gorgeous men, whom the couple have made to look even more surreally beautiful with the help of vibrant, painted colours, fantasy backgrounds, brilliant lighting and airbrushing.
Certainly, they have cause to be over-the-top.
Their in-your-face, erotic painted photographs have been embraced not only in the commercial world, but also in the rarefied atmospheres of museums and galleries from New York to Tokyo, institutions that obviously disagree with some of the critics who write off their work as glitter and kitsch. So it's a bit surprising to find that Pierre and Gilles are shy and unassuming rather than extroverted and arrogant, that they prefer to stay home rather than work the party circuit that is so readily accessible owing to their status as one of the art world's hippest couples.
They reside in the sleepy suburb of Pre-Saint-Gervais, a world away from the hip Bastille area of Paris. Neighbours with strollers stop and chat on the tranquil, leafy streets and there are few shops around. Yet you know something unusual is about to unfold in the midst of Parisian suburbia when you get to the artists' door, on which is painted a cherubic figure urinating. Below is their signature: pierre and gilles, the two names, all in small letters, straddling a big valentine heart.
Dressed in T-shirts and jeans, with tattoos including a Chinese goddess and 'amour' decorating their arms, Pierre and Gilles answer the door. The huge apartment-cum-studio, spread over three floors, is so packed with art, kitschy souvenirs from all over the world, photos and paintings that it is like walking into someone's dream. 'Everyone thinks we live life in the large,' says Gilles, sitting back on an elaborately carved chair, part of a set acquired from Laos, explaining why the couple moved years ago from Paris. 'But that's a false impression. Yes, we know everyone. But by nature we're timid.'
