David LaChapelleAngelina Jolie: Lusty Spring, 2001
About the Item
- Creator:David LaChapelle (1964, American)
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU291338403
David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle's highly polished, saturated and intricately composed photographs possess the surreal wildness of fever dreams, concocted as they are out of the imagery of celebrity, eroticism and modern Americana, and spiked with religious allegory and forebodings of doom.
Such work has made him among the most influential art and celebrity photographers of his generation. You might say LaChapelle sprung straight from the head of Andy Warhol, whose campy silkscreen fusions of the glamorous, the transgressive and the everyday forever changed contemporary art.
Like so many young gay artists who came out of the 1980s downtown New York scene, LaChapelle’s escapist visions arose out of a lonely, bullied adolescence. Although born in Connecticut, the photographer spent his early childhood in North Carolina, the youngest of three children. Later, when LaChapelle was in his early teens, his family moved back to suburban Connecticut, but his cowboy costumes and gender-bending ways did not earn LaChapelle friends among his new preppy classmates.
By high school, LaChapelle felt terrorized and suicidal. He fled to New York, where his good looks got him a job bussing tables at Studio 54. It was there that he reputedly first met Warhol, who had been his favorite artist since he first gazed upon a Gold Marilyn, while on a fourth-grade field trip to a museum.
LaChapelle's parents eventually retrieved him from New York, and, sympathizing with his plight, sent him off to the North Carolina School of the Arts. Despite a more embracing atmosphere, he didn’t stay long. A sojourn in London followed. When he returned to New York, around 1983, the punk-inflected downtown culture was churning out gritty new art. Keith Haring’s gay-themed Pop-art graffiti was in everybody’s face, and Robert Mapplethorpe’s S&M photos were on gallery walls.
Having scored a show of his black-and-white photography — already vaguely campy and transfiguration-obsessed — at New York’s then-fledgling 303 Gallery in 1984, LaChapelle attracted the interest of Interview magazine. Warhol was then at the zenith of his influence in both the art world and the downtown scene. Recognizing LaChapelle’s potential as an eye-catching celebrity photographer, he put him on staff, providing him with the creative milieu where his distinctive talent might develop.
There were editorial assignments for i-D, The Face and later for Vanity Fair, Vogue Paris and Rolling Stone. He also made excursions into advertising. One of his most talked about campaigns was a provocative print ad for Diesel jeans inspired by the famous photograph of the V-J kiss in Times Square, but this time showing Tom of Finland–type sailors in passionate embrace.
After being without an editorial home for several years, LaChapelle finally found a base at Details, where he was again encouraged to let his freak flag fly. So arresting were his images that it wasn’t long before “the Fellini of photography,” as New York magazine dubbed him in 1996, was again working for Interview. One of his most emblematic pictures from this era was a Lil’ Kim cover for that magazine, featuring the rapper’s nude body emblazoned with Louis Vuitton insignia (one of the most famous logos in luxury fashion).
Such visually zany, socially astute portraits prompted Richard Avedon to liken LaChapelle to a photographic Magritte, while also winning him invitations to direct music videos for such talents as Christina Aguilera, Moby and Amy Winehouse.
Find a collection of original David LaChapelle photography today on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Bees Do It, Paris, 2012By Ellen von UnwerthLocated in New York, NYsigned by the photographerCategory
2010s Black and White Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper
- Château Marmont, Los Angeles, 2011By Ellen von UnwerthLocated in New York, NYSigned by the photographerCategory
2010s Black and White Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper
- Flush: Elle Macpherson, New York, 2004By Ellen von UnwerthLocated in New York, NYSigned by the photographerCategory
Early 2000s Black and White Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper
- Private Affair, Paris, 2012By Ellen von UnwerthLocated in New York, NYSigned by the photographerCategory
2010s Black and White Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper
- In The Shower With Rihanna, New York, 2014By Ellen von UnwerthLocated in New York, NYSigned by the photographerCategory
2010s Black and White Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper
- The Pinch, Paris, 2008By Ellen von UnwerthLocated in New York, NYsigned by the photographerCategory
Early 2000s Black and White Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper
- Nip UpBy Fernand FonssagrivesLocated in New York, NYGelatin silver print (Edition of 50) Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in pencil, verso This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City.Category
1930s Other Art Style Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- chanson d'amour VIBy Akif Hakan CelebiLocated in PARIS, FRThe artwork come directly from the Artist studio The artwork is dated, signed and numbered by the Artist on verso of the Diasec.../7 The artwork come accompanied with an original Ce...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography
MaterialsDigital
- Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Jacques Lipchitz Bronze Sculpture Photo SignedBy Adolph StudlyLocated in Surfside, FLAdolph Studly, Swiss born American photographer. His work is kept in the Photographic Archive at The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. He was known for his gallery photographs of works by artists represented primarily by the Buchholz gallery, Curt Valentin, and Stephen Radich Galleries. Artists whose work he shot include Max Beckmann, Francis Bacon, Chaim Soutine, Allan Kaprow, Clyfford Still, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Georges Rouault. He worked with Louis H. Dreyer, the pre-eminent architecture photographer in New York City. Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, 1891-1973, was born in Lithuania and came of age in Paris during the early 20th century, where he was active in the avante-garde community of Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, Chaim Soutine, and Juan Gris. Art historian H. H. Arnason, who ranked Lipchitz with Picasso and Marc Chagall, wrote, "Lipchitz, as a pure sculptor, is ...unquestionably one of the greatest sculptors of this century." The architect Philip Johnson asked Lipchitz to make a wall sculpture to be placed on the brick chimney over a fireplace of a guest house owned by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III on West 53rd Street in New York. Lipchitz decided to develop the piece from his Pegasus designs and call it Birth of the Muses in honor of the Rockefellers' interest in the arts. In 1950 he completed the work as a bronze relief five feet high. It was installed as planned and later was acquired by Lincoln Center. He participated in the Flight portfolio...Category
1940s Modern Abstract Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
- Karl Lagerfeld`s Salon - baroque interior with people, fine art photography 1991By Arthur ElgortLocated in Vienna, ATAll prints are limited edition. Available in multiple sizes. High-end framing on request. All prints are done and signed by the artist. The collector receives an additional certific...Category
1990s Contemporary Figurative Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Woman on a Level Four, Monte Carlo Gelatin Silver Print, Black&White PhotographyBy Helmut NewtonLocated in Milano, ITA vintage print by Helmut Newton, dating back to the year 2000, bearing original stamps on the verso and accompanied by a certification of authenticity issued by Davide Manfredi, for...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- AS FAR AS A VISTA - Folded Tapestry - Dual Landscape PhotographyLocated in Signal Mountain, TNAS FAR AS A VISTA, is part of a series of works that consider the decorative and escapist role of the landscape in the home. When seeking beauty in the world to distract us, delight ...Category
2010s Contemporary Still-life Prints
MaterialsTapestry, Ink
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
David LaChapelle’s Marvelous Make-Believe World Takes over Fotografskia
The Manhattan branch of the Stockholm photography museum has devoted its entire space to the artist's high-gloss, high-impact — and surprisingly political — works.
Kali Is an Art World Sensation, 40 Years after She Hid Her Work Away
A newly discovered trove of her kaleidoscopic works reveals that the enigmatic artist captured the zeitgeist of 1960s Southern California.