Dominique Issermann (b. 1946), a fashion, advertising and portrait photographer known for her striking black and white images, was born in Paris and became interested in photography as a teenager. She studied literature at the Sorbonne before moving to Rome in 1968 to work with Jean Luc Godard and other avant garde filmmakers. After returning to Paris in 1973 she created series of stills shot on the sets of films by Fellini and Bertolucci. Increasingly drawn to portraiture, she photographed the luminaries of French cinema including Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Simone Signoret and Isabelle Huppert, and has subsequently created portraits of contemporary film stars such as Marion Cotillard and Léa Seydoux. For a decade from 1979, she shot advertising campaigns for designer Sonia Rykiel, and has since created work for Christian Dior, Nina Ricci, Guess, Lancôme, La Perla, Hermes, Tiffany and Chanel, among others.
Issermann's work has appeared regularly in Vogue, Elle and other fashion bibles. Her other portrait subjects include Marguerite Duras, Balthus, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen, with whom she was in a relationship and for whom she shot many videoclips. She was honoured for her fashion photography at the British Fashion Awards in 1988 and in 2007, she was promoted to the rank of Officer of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2012, Issermann was admitted to France's National Order of Merit.
