David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle is known internationally for his exceptional talent in combining a unique hyper-realistic aesthetic with profound social messages. David’s photography career began in the 1980s when he began showing his artwork in New York City galleries. His work caught the eye of Andy Warhol, who offered him his first job as a photographer at Interview Magazine. His photographs of celebrities in Interview garnered positive attention, and before long he was shooting for a variety of top editorial publications and creating some of the most memorable advertising campaigns of his generation. David’s striking images have graced the covers and pages of Italian Vogue, French Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone and i-D, and he has photographed some of the most recognizable faces on the planet, including Tupac Shakur, Madonna, Eminem, Andy Warhol, Pamela Anderson, Lil’ Kim, Uma Thurman, Elizabeth Taylor, David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hillary Clinton, Muhammad Ali, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and Angelina Jolie.

After establishing himself as a fixture in contemporary photography, David decided to branch out and direct music videos, live theatrical events, and documentary films. His directing credits include music videos for artists such as Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, and No Doubt. His stage work includes Elton John’s The Red Piano and the Caesar’s Palace Spectacular he designed and directed in 2004. His burgeoning interest in film led him to make the short documentary Krumped, a Sundance award-winner from which he developed RIZE, the feature film acquired for worldwide distribution by Lionsgate Films. RIZE was released theatrically in the U.S. and in seventeen different countries in the summer of 2005 to huge critical acclaim, and was chosen to open the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.

In 2006, David decided to minimize his participation in commercial photography and return to his roots by focusing on fine art photography. Since then, he has been the subject of exhibitions in both commercial galleries and leading public institutions around the world. He has had record breaking solo museum exhibitions at the Barbican (London), the National Portrait Gallery (DC), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Museum of Poland (Krakow), Kestner-Gesellschaft (Germany), Lucca Center of Contemporary Art (Italy), Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (Toronto), Kunsthaus Wien (Vienna), Palazzo Reale (Milan), Museo del Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (Mexico City), Musée de La Monnaie (Paris), and the Tapei Museum of Contemporary Art (Taiwan). By 2011, David had a major exhibition of new works at the Lever House (NYC) and retrospectives at the Museo Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, the Hangaram Design Museum (Seoul), Galerie Rudolfinum (Prague), Fotografiska Museet (Stockholm), and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, by which he was awarded Artist of the Year. In 2014, David exhibited his series “Land Scape” in NYC, Vienna, London, and Paris. He had exhibitions internationally throughout 2015, including MAC Lima, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome), and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (Chile). In 2016, David had solo exhibitions in the Czech Republic, Uruguay, and South Korea.

Over the course of his 30+ year career, David continues to be inspired by everything, from art history to street culture, from the metaphysical to immortality, projecting an image of 21st-century pop culture through his work that is both loving and critical. Always aware of larger social implications, David’s work transcends the material world. He is quite simply the only photographic artist working today who has been able to successfully maintain a profound impact in the realm of celebrity photography as well as the notoriously discerning contemporary art intelligentsia.