‘If someone says no, you’re talking to the wrong person’: how make-up artist Marcelo Gutierrez created his own universe in New York

The introduction to a new book by make-up artist Marcelo Gutierrez is written by his close friend Lily-Rose Depp. ‘[Make-up] is the art that moves and breathes with us, that becomes us and helps us become who we want to be. It brings the inside to the very surface and becomes the skin we live in,’ the actor says in the forward to Nothing Precious.

Gutierrez echoes this sentiment when I speak to him over a call from the set of his latest photoshoot, ahead of the book’s launch at Climax Books in New York – the city he calls home. ‘Beauty is a lot less about changing something about yourself and more about putting a spotlight on the elements that make you who you are,’ he says. ‘Make-up, at the end of the day, reveals a lot about a person's relationship to themselves by what they decide to exaggerate, hide, or even change.’

Marcelo Gutierrez: ‘Nothing Precious’

Over the past eight years, Gutierrez’s work has illustrated how even a couple of coloured pigments can completely transform and embolden the person wearing them. It’s a talent that was spotted by Pat McGrath in 2016: upon seeing some of his portfolio on Instagram, she sent him a DM and soon became a mentor. Since then, in addition to Depp, he has painted the faces of Emma Corrin, Hari Nef, Caroline Polachek, Rosalia, Hunter Schafer, Alek Wek, Lourdes Leon and her mother, Madonna. He’s worked with brands including Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari and Kiko Constadinov and counts photographers Tyler Mitchell, Campbell Addy, Petra Collins, Aidan Zamiri, Renell Medrano and Jan Anthonio as frequent collaborators.

Zamiri and Medrano contribute to Nothing Precious. Also featured is Anthonio, clad in a leather vest and low-slung pants, with silver paint on his forehead and nose; the hairstylist Evanie Frausto, wearing a mask of red face paint; and Sonny Molina, who is transformed into a modern-day pieta, with plastic tears and skin glazed as if it was cast in an oven. Model Gabriette stares languidly from its pages, her eyes winged with black and silver liner, whilst Paloma Elsesser looks eerie in a black veil and colour-changing contacts.

Born in Columbia, Guitterrez immigrated to Florida with his family when he was a child. As a young adult, he pursued an art degree in Los Angeles, ultimately ending up in New York and becoming well acquainted with the struggles of making it as a creative in the city. ‘To be frank, I was an aspiring performance artist and painter but that doesn’t pay the rent in New York unless you come from a wealthy family,’ he says. ‘I knew I wanted to pursue make-up when I understood that it combined all these elements of performance, identity, fashion and image making while simultaneously being a potentially profitable job.’

‘The biggest challenge is getting through the door and in the room with the ones who previously didn’t think there was room for someone like you,’ he continues. ‘I’m proud of how tenacious and strong I am without compromising my morals. My best advice is – if someone says no, you’re talking to the wrong person.’

This uncompromising energy radiates in Gutierrez’ work. As I was flipping through Nothing Precious, my mind kept returning to The Warriors, a 1979 film that depicts gangs in flamboyant face paint and thrift store regalia battling it out for the streets of a post-apocalyptic New York. It took me a minute to figure out why. But then I realised it was because everyone in this book looks ready for battle, defiant in a wonderfully outlandish way. Even a simple, glossy lip has the same effect.

Because all of the figures in Nothing Precious are Gutierrez’s friends, there is a sense of intimacy displayed in its contents, too. The layout lends itself to a feeling of looking at something personal; something that is, despite the title, precious. Images are spliced as if you are scrolling through them on a screen. Some sit scrap-book-like, atop notebook pages or bits of ephemera.

Together, it creates the feeling of a ‘work-in-progress’, as though you were on set with Gutierrez and the photographers, deciding what images should make the final cut. It’s a snapshot of a current ‘moment’ in New York, where the city feels like it is teetering on the edge, but ripe with creative potential nonetheless. ‘Everyone involved in this book has either known me since I arrived in New York City at 20 years old or has been, in some form, a beacon of inspiration to me,’ he says. ‘This is a book about a universe – a New York universe during a very special time.’

Nothing Precious by Marcelo Gutierrez is available now.

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