Book a day

NOIRBLANC

Editorial makeup in black and white.
Shoots, covers and campaigns.
Paris · New York

Look 01: a model in profile with graphic black liner and wet, slicked hair, in black and white
  1. 01Graphic liner
  2. 02The wing
  3. 03Groomed, no shine
  4. 04Matte noir lip
  5. 12 looks in the index →

Editorial day rate $1,400 · half day $800Book a day →

Red prints black. Pink prints nothing. I make up for the print.

Every look on this page was made for black and white. Nothing was converted afterwards.

Index

Twelve looks, one palette.

Look 01, Graphic liner
01Paris, January · One stroke, lifted past the brow’s tail. Hair wet, skin bare.
  1. Look 01, Graphic liner, Paris, January
    One stroke, lifted past the brow’s tail. Hair wet, skin bare.
  2. Look 02, The wing, New York, April
    A wing drawn in three passes, the last one with a dry brush.
  3. Look 03, Groomed, no shine, New York, May
    Menswear. Brows brushed up, every highlight taken down.
  4. Look 04, Matte noir lip, Paris, June
    A plum that prints as black. Red would have printed grey.
  5. Look 05, The smudge, Paris, March
    Backstage kohl, smudged with a thumb and left alone.
  6. Look 06, Glass lid, New York, February
    Bleached brows, balm on the lids. Shine is the only color.
  7. Look 07, Negative liner, New York, October
    White liner floating above the crease. It prints brighter than skin.
  8. Look 08, Sculpt, Paris, September
    One side light, one highlight on the bone. Nothing else.
  9. Look 09, Freckles, drawn, Paris, November
    A story on age. Freckles drawn by hand, lines left in.
  10. Look 10, Lacquer, New York, December
    Black gloss on the lip, half the face given to the shadow.
  11. Look 11, The brow, Paris, October
    Squared, brushed up and filled with grey, not black.
  12. Look 12, The street, New York, April
    Lower Manhattan in the rain. A dark lip that survived it.
Odile Delorme, a dark bob and a black turtleneck, holding a liner brush

The artist

Odile Delorme

My grandfather printed photographs in Lyon for forty years, in a darkroom behind his shop on the Croix-Rousse hill. I spent my Wednesdays there, in the red light, watching faces come up in the tray.

He taught me the thing that became my job. A red lip prints black, a pink cheek prints nothing at all, and nobody looking at the print will ever know which color you used. Only how dark it was.

I trained in Paris and spent six seasons backstage at the shows, mostly holding brushes for other people. In 2015 a photographer asked me for a whole story in black and white, and I never really went back. I came to New York in 2019 for a two-week job and kept the studio.

I still carry a monochrome viewing glass on a cord around my neck. Every face goes through it before the first frame.

  • 2015black and white only
  • 2studios, Paris and New York
  • FR · ENon set, either one
Odile, seen from behind, drawing liner on a model by a tall Paris window
Paris, the studio, a Tuesday
The kit on a white table: brushes in a row, pots of black, grey and white cream, a kohl pencil and a hand mirror
The kit. Black, grey and white, nothing else.

Method

Made up in grey.

  1. I

    Value, not color.

    A red that is perfect in the mirror can print the same grey as the skin around it. I choose every product by how dark it prints, not by its shade.

  2. II

    Texture is the color.

    Without color, the camera reads matte against gloss, powder against skin. That difference is where a look lives in a black and white print.

  3. III

    Shine is a decision.

    A highlight prints as pure white. One in the right place is a cheekbone; three in the wrong places is a forehead that needs retouching.

Rates

By the day, in either city.

Editorial day
10 hours on set, Paris or New York
$1,400
Half day
Up to 5 hours
$800
Campaign day
With usage, quoted in writing
from $2,400
Backstage
Show day, lead artist, team on request
from $1,600
Test
3 hours at the studio, for photographers
$450

$300 holds a day, $200 a half day; it comes off the invoice. Booked in the city I am in, there is no travel fee. In the other one: a travel day at half rate, and the flight.

Paris · New York

Two studios, two seasons.

  1. JanP
  2. FebNY
  3. MarP
  4. AprNY
  5. MayNY
  6. JunP
  7. JulP
  8. AugOff
  9. SepNY / P
  10. OctP
  11. NovNY
  12. DecNY

P = Paris · NY = New York · grey = both, the shows · August is off

Paris

A third-floor studio in the Haut Marais, with two tall windows facing north and a parquet floor that creaks in the same place every morning. Shoots across the city, and backstage at the shows.

© OpenStreetMap contributors
Noir Blanc, Paris Haut Marais, 3e. The address comes with your booking. Open the map

New York

A white room in Tribeca, one block from the cast iron. Tests run here; shoots run anywhere from Lower Manhattan to a rooftop in Brooklyn.

© OpenStreetMap contributors
Noir Blanc, New York Tribeca, Lower Manhattan. The address comes with your booking. Open the map

Words

Behind the camera.

  • “She looked at my model through that little glass and changed the lip three times. In the print it was the only thing you saw.”

    Photographer, Paris

  • “Skin printed clean straight out of camera. My retoucher asked who did it.”

    Photographer, New York

  • “Twenty-two models in forty minutes, and every brow was the same grey.”

    Show producer, Paris

  • “She asked for the light plan before the moodboard. On the day, I understood why.”

    Art director, New York

Questions

Before you book.

01Do you work in color?

No. Every look is built for black and white, and that is the whole job. If your story has color pages, book a color artist for those; I am happy to send you friends in both cities.

02Why does it matter how it will be shot?

Because the print sees value, not color. A lip can be perfect to the eye and vanish into the skin in grey. I choose products by how dark they print, so the look you see on the monitor is the look on the page.

03Which city are you in?

Paris in January, March, June, July and October, around the shows. New York in February, April, May, November and December. September is both. August is the darkroom, and the beach.

04Do you do hair?

Clean, groomed hair: slicked, tucked, smoothed, as in these looks. For sculpted hair I bring a hairstylist I trust in each city, quoted separately.

05How do I hold a day?

Pick it below. $300 holds a day, $200 a half day, and it comes off the invoice. If the shoot moves within the season, the hold moves with it.

06Do you work with every skin tone?

Yes. In black and white, deep and fair skin need different shine and different light, and I plan both with the photographer before the day.

Book

Hold a day in grey.

Pick the date and the city goes in the notes. Odile writes back within the day, in French or English, and asks for the light plan.

Editorial day $1,400 · half day $800 · $300 holds a day

  1. 1Service
  2. 2Date
  3. 3Details
Choose the booking
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