Pascal Dangin has earned a reputation as the go-to guy for perfecting images of the most beautiful women in the world since he started in the early 1990s. Captured by Matthew Donaldson in the back of a chauffeur-driven sedan during his daily traversing of the city for the third in the Getting There series, the Corsican-born digital artist cuts an unlikely figure in the ultra-polished New York fashion world, where he has earned a reputation as photography’s foremost retoucher.

“It is still an epicenter of energy, but the urban culture that New York created is not there anymore,” Dangin says of his adopted city. “There is no romance left for me. It is about work. However, I just can’t think of living anywhere else.” Dangin has moved into working with the film industry in recent years, counting Gus van Sant and Noah Baumbach as clients, and last year launched a creative agency called KiDS, bringing his critical eye direct to the luxury clients he has worked with for decades. 

“Magazines, brands and music all tend to feed people what they think the market wants because of their many market studies,” says Dangin. “If you start leading or innovating you have to listen but at the same time hold true to your heart and beliefs. Great creators have always done things that no one wants at first.”

Rebecca Guinness is Editor-at-Large at NOWNESS.