David LaChapelle
6 catalogued objects connected to David LaChapelle.
Biography
Person.
David LaChapelle is an American photographer and filmmaker whose elaborately staged images turn celebrity, fashion and popular symbolism into theatrical worlds of saturated colour. Born in Connecticut in 1963, he initially studied painting and developed an early photographic technique that involved hand-colouring negatives; after moving to New York at seventeen and exhibiting at Gallery 303, he was hired by Andy Warhol to work for Interview magazine.
From that editorial beginning LaChapelle developed a visual language in which portraiture, still life and large-scale tableau borrow from advertising, religious imagery, cinema and Pop Art while pushing their artificiality into the foreground. His books include LaChapelle Land, Hotel LaChapelle and Heaven to Hell, and his moving-image work includes music videos, stage projects and the 2005 feature documentary Rize.
Reviewed 2026-08-19Selected sources
- David LaChapelle — AboutLaChapelle’s 1963 Connecticut birth, art-school background, hand-painted-negative technique, move to New York, first exhibition, employment by Andy Warhol at Interview, staged photographic practice, books and 2005 film Rize.
- National Portrait Gallery — The Face Magazine: Culture Shift publicationLaChapelle’s place among the major photographers associated with The Face and the magazine’s broader role in fashion photography and British visual culture.
PER-7273804F3B4ED975
Represented across objects dated 1995–2004.
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