David LaChapelle (born March 11, 1963[1]) is an American photographer, music video director, and film director. He is best known for his work in fashion and photography, which often referencesart history and sometimes conveys social messages. His photographic style has been described as "hyper-real and slyly subversive" and as "kitschpopsurrealism".[1][2] Once called "theFellini of photography",[3] LaChapelle has worked for international publications and has had his work exhibited in commercial galleries and institutions around the world.[4][5][6]
David LaChapelle was born inHartford, Connecticut to Philip and Helga LaChapelle; he has a sister Sonja and a brother Philip.[7] His mother was a refugee from Lithuania who arrived atEllis Island in the early 1960s.[6] His family lived in Hartford until he was nine years old. He has said to have loved the public schools in Connecticut and thrived in their art program as a child and teenager, although he struggled with bullying growing up.[8]
He and his family moved toRaleigh, North Carolina, where they lived until he was 14 years old, before returning north toFairfield, Connecticut. He was bullied in his North Carolina school for his sexuality.[6] When he was 15 years old, he ran away from home to become abusboy atStudio 54 in New York City.[1][9]
His first photograph was of his mother Helga on a family vacation in Puerto Rico. LaChapelle credits his mother for influencing hisart direction in the way she set up scenes for family photos in his youth.[9]
LaChapelle's work has been called "meticulously created in a high-gloss, color-popping, hyper-realistic style", and his photos are known to "crackle with subversive – or at least hilarious – ideas, rude energy and laughter. They are full of juicy life."[17] In 1995 David LaChapelle shot the famous 'kissing sailors' advertisement forDiesel. It was staged at the peace celebration ofWorld War II and became one of the first public advertisements showing a gay or lesbian couple kissing.[18] Much of its controversy was due to it being published at the height of the "Don't ask, don't tell" debates in United States, which had led to the U.S. government to ban openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. In a long article published byfrieze in 1996, the advertisement was credited for its "overarching tone of heavy-handed humor and sarcasm".[18] In September 2011, when the "Don't ask, don't tell" law was finally removed by PresidentBarack Obama,Renzo Rosso, the founder and president of Diesel who originally had approved and pushed for the advertisement, said "16 years ago people wouldn't stop complaining about this ad. Now it's finally accepted legally."[19]
1995: "Best New Photographer of the Year" byFrench Photo andAmerican Photo magazines[20]1996: “Photographer of the Year Award” at the VH-1 Fashion Awards“Applied Photography of the Year Award” from The International Center of Photography[20]1997: Best book Design 1998: Best “Cutting Edge Essay” and “Style Photography” atLife magazine’s Alfred Eisenstadt Awards for Magazine Photography[20]1999: Honored in the “Cover of the Year”2000: Won "Best Video" for Moby's "Nature Blues" at the MTV Europe Music Award[20]
Themes in LaChapelle's art photography, which he has developed in hisMaui home, includesalvation,redemption,paradise, andconsumerism.[6][21][22][23] It is clear that LaChapelle's "new direction highlights his interest and understanding of both contemporary practice and art history".[24]
LaChapelle's images "both bizarre and gorgeous have forged a singular style that is unique, original, and perfectly unmistakeable.[25]" His photographs have been collected in a number of books.LaChapelle Land (1996) was selected as one of 101 "Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century" and is "highly valued by collectors".[9][26][27] His second book,Hotel LaChapelle (1999), was described as a "garish, sexy, enchanting trip".[28]Heaven to Hell (2006) featured "almost twice as many images as its predecessors", and "is an explosive compilation of new work by the visionary photographer".[29]LaChapelle, Artists and Prostitutes (2006), a limited-edition, signed, numbered book contains 688 pages of photographs taken between 1985 and 2005.[27]Artists and Prostitutes was published byTaschen and includes a photograph of the publisherBenedikt Taschen in asadomasochism scene.[12]
In the first two decades of the 2000s, LaChapelle returned to a focus on fine art photography and exhibited his work in several galleries and museums.[30] LaChapelle has had solo museum exhibitions at theBarbican Museum in London (2002), Kausthaus Wien in Vienna (2002), Palazzo Reale in Milan (2007),Museo del Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City (2009), theMusée de La Monnaie in Paris (2009), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei (2010), and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel (2010).[25][30][better source needed]
By 2011, LaChapelle had an exhibition at theLever House in New York[31] and retrospectives at the Museo Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico,[32] the Hanagaram Design Museum in Seoul,[33] and Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague.[34] In the following years, LaChapelle's works were also exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in LA (2012),[35] the Musée d'Orsay in Paris (2013),[36] Fotografiska Museet in Sweden (2013)[37] and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. (2014).[38]
In 2014, LaChapelle exhibited his series, 'Land Scape' in New York, Vienna, London, and Paris.[39] Other shows include OstLicht Galerie fur Fotografie in Vienna, Austria,[40] MAC Lima in Peru,[41] Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome,[42] and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Chile.[43] In 2016, LaChapelle's work was shown at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London,[44] DSC Gallery in the Czech Republic,[45] at several venues in Montevideo in Uruguay[46] and at the Edward Hopper House in New York. In 2018, LaChapelle exhibited 10 of his series in one exhibition,Good News For Modern Man, in the Groninger Museum (The Netherlands).[47]
In 2024, LaChapelle held his first major museum solo exhibition in North America atFotografiskaNew York titledMake Believe, which was also the museum’s first building-wide show. The exhibition featured over 150 works, combining some of LaChapelle’s most iconic images with new works[48].
LaChapelle cites a number of artists who have influenced his photography. In a 2009 interview, he mentioned theBaroque paintersAndrea Pozzo andCaravaggio as two of his favorites.[22] A critic has noted that LaChapelle's work has been influenced bySalvador Dalí,Jeff Koons,Michelangelo,Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol.[5] Richard Avedon noted that of all the photographers inventing surreal images, LaChapelle has the potential to be the genre's Magritte.[49] Helmut Newton has also contributed to the discourse on LaChapelle, stating in aNew York Times article by Cathy Horyn "He [LaChapelle] isn't very impressed by current photography. 'There's a lot of pornographic pictures taken by the young today ...A lot of the nudity is gratuitous. But someone who makes me laugh is David LaChapelle. I think he is very bright, very funny, and good'".[50] LaChapelle is Catholic and often uses religious symbolism in his work.[51]
LaChapelle hasbipolar disorder, but as he feels drugs do not work for him, he is careful to monitor his mental health.[52] In the mid-1980s, he lost his boyfriend of the time toAIDS.[52] He relocated to London, where that city's counterculture proved enormously influential in forming his aesthetic. "I thought I'd seen it all. When I went to London, the level of creativity and insanity ... they were on a whole other planet."[52] He was particularly struck by that culture's insistence on originality, rather than copying. For him, Los Angeles had been "the literal opposite".[52] While living in London, he married the female publicist of the UK popstarMarilyn; the marriage lasted a year.[52]
In 2006, LaChapelle abruptly left Los Angeles. He moved to a "very isolated part of Hawaii in this forest. It's off the grid, bio-diesel cars, solar-powered, growing our own food, completely sustainable. I thought 'OK, I'm a farmer now.'" LaChapelle's change in path eventually brought him back to his roots. While in Hawaii, a longstanding colleague invited him to shoot for a gallery, which he had not done since his days as a fledgling photographer in New York. "I was really shocked", LaChapelle recalled. "I'm so known as a commercial artist, a big name as a fashion and celebrity photographer, I didn't think a gallery will take me seriously. It's like being reborn; it's like rebirth; it's like starting over. It's back to where I started, where I very first started in galleries when I was a kid. It's just come full circle."[53]
David LaChapelle: the Rape of Africa (Amsterdam: Reflex, 2009) -ISBN9789071848070
David LaChapelle,Delirios de Razon (212 Production, 2009)ISBN9786079530006
David LaChapelle, Moca Taipei Catalogue (Pascal de Sarthe & Fred Torres Collaborations for Taipei Culture Foundation/Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2010)ISBN9789868529472
Taschen 30th Anniversary: Golden Book of the Year (Köln: Taschen, 2010)ISBN9783836522847
David LaChapelle: Bliss Amongst Chaos (Fred Torres Collaborations, 2010)ISBN9780615382043
David LaChapelle, Maybach: Going Places (Daimler AG, 2010)
Borders and Frontiers (Oakland University Art Gallery, 2011)
David LaChapelle,Earth Laughs in Flowers (Distanz Verlag, 2011)ISBN9783942405294
David LaChapelle: Lost and Found (Pavleye Art and Culture, 2011)ISBN9788090500600
Nosotros: La Humanidad Al Borde (Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico, 2011)ISBN9781881723066
Thus Spoke LaChapelle (Arbor vitae, Revnice, and Pavleye Art & Culture, 2011)ISBN9788087164860
^Sigesmund, B.J. (November 11, 1996). "Shooting Star: Sexy, campy, and slightly crazed, David LaChapelle is the Fellini of photography. His subjects seem to enjoy the circus".New York.29 (44):56–58.
^abKutner, Janet (June 1, 2005). "Outrageous Fortune - Goss Gallery Opens with a Trove of Celebrity Shooter David LaChapelle's Outré Images".The Dallas Morning News.
^Jones, Dylan (April 29, 2002). "'Does My Tum Look Fat In This?'; Life & Style: What really happened at the David Beckham fashion shoot (and who applied the baby oil?)".Evening Standard. pp. 25–26.
^Roth, Andrew (2001).The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century. New York: PPP Editions in association with Ruth Horowitz.ISBN0967077443.
^abcdeIqbal, Nosheen: Photographer David LaChapelle: 'I never wanted to shoot another pop star – I was tortured by them',The Guardian, November 22, 2017[1]
