MACHAS

Gerard Pique in Diver & Aguilar’s Hall of Mirrors for FHM

Gerard Pique is one of the most recognizable football players of the planet: if winning a World Cup and spearheading Barcelona FC wasn’t enough, he’s been chosen to be face of clothing company Mango for the second year in a row and of FIFA 2012 xbox/PS3 Game. It comes as no surprise that FHM Spain selected him for the cover of their bi-annual Collection. The storyline that Machas’ Artist Diver & Aguilar selected for the occasion is heavily movie-inspired, here’s what Mike Diver has to say about it: “There was this idea of using mirrors, so we based the piece of the concept of “Hall of Mirrors” from the “Enter The Dragon” movie, playing the pun on self-defense being the position Gerard plays on the football field. I have always been inspired by movies and the Hall of Mirrors seemed perfect”

M: How was working with Pique as a fashion model?
MD: As well as the usual Nike sponsorship, Pique has fashion contracts with Mango so he was totally comfortable taking on the role of a model. We were looking to achieve something more in depth of his personality, a completely different angle to what is normally seen.”

M: This is not the first time you show a different side of an athlete, isn’t it?
MD: we have been working with FC Barcelona for five years now and built up quite a relationship with the club and players. We also work extensively with Nike Football and shot various sport celebrities for editorial rather than just advertising, so this is not the first time we have portrayed a sportsman outside of his natural environment. In fact last year we shot Ryan Giggs as Sports celebrity man of the year for GQ magazine. I guess that we have built up a reputation for being able to make athletes feel as comfortable in front of the camera with their kit or a tuxedo.

M: How do you work with celebrities?
MD: When we are working with Barcelona FC we sometimes have to deal with maybe 23 players in a very short period of time, so it’s a luxury when the production can be so strongly thought out and we are able to develop a much closer relationship. Gerard was with us for 4/5 hours and its absolutely essential that the celebrity, whoever is, has to be inspired by the concept. I always make sure the person I am shooting has been fully briefed either by the magazine or by the management - and Pique was totally into the concept and really enjoyed working with us.

M: This shooting had a lot of broken glass involved…
MD: We started out with a set of clean polished mirrors but towards the end of the shoot we started to break everything up! There were moments when we really pondered what would happen if the whole thing collapsed on Pique, who’s probably worth in the region of 50 million pounds on the transfer market…but he seemed completely unconcerned and everything went well! 

See more of Diver & Aguilar’s work here