Background
David LaChapelle was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Philip and Helga LaChapelle; he has a sister Sonja and a brother Philip.
director Fine-art photographer commercial photographer music video director
David LaChapelle was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Philip and Helga LaChapelle; he has a sister Sonja and a brother Philip.
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. Then he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina with his family, where they lived until he was fourteen, before moving back to Fairfield, Connecticut. He was bullied in his North Carolina school for being gay. When he was 15 years old, he ran away from home to become a busboy at Studio 54 in New York City. Eventually, he returned to North Carolina to enroll in the North Carolina School of Arts.
His first known photograph was a study of his mother. This was taken in Puerto Rico during a family vacation. LaChapelle quickly saw the potential of photography for himself, and he soon became intensely interested in the subject. He soon decided to return to New York, settling there in 1980.
At this time, Andy Warhol remarked upon his photographic abilities, and LaChapelle secured employment as a photographer for Interview magazine. This magazine was, at the time, among the foremost in the country in terms of pop culture coverage. He took a number of widely circulated photos of famous figures for the magazine, and this work brought him wider attention.
By now, he was starting to be in demand all over the industry. The images he took were used in many renowned publications, ranging from Vogue Paris to The New York Times. LaChapelle continued to photograph famous figures, and his photos of the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton, and David Beckham were widely seen.
LaChapelle2By the mid-1990s, LaChapelle was sufficiently well known and there were demands for collections of his images in book form. He published LaChapelle Land in 1996, and a number of others have since followed. Meanwhile, he diversified away from a pure focus on still photography to begin making films.
He made several documentaries, but it is his music videos which have brought him the greatest success. He was the director of movies featuring artists of the caliber of Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and Mariah Carey. As well as his film work, LaChapelle also became involved in a theatrical production.
Among LaChapelle’s theatrical works are the Red Piano show featuring Elton John and a 2004 show at Caesar’s Palace. He also became involved in making public interest films, such as the Declare Yourself campaign of 2004. This was made in order to encourage young people to use their votes in elections.
In the same year, he made the short movie Krumped, which is about hip-hop culture in America. It was critically acclaimed and a prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival. He followed that up the following year with Rize, centering on the same subject. In 2006, LaChapelle suspended work on film direction to go back to taking fine art photographs.
He is best known for his photography, which often references art history and sometimes conveys social messages. His photographic style has been described as "hyper-real and slyly subversive" and as "kitsch pop surrealism". Once called the Fellini of photography, LaChapelle has worked for international publications and has had his work exhibited in commercial galleries and institutions around the world.
David has received several recognitions and awards during his career. In 1996, he won the award for Photographer of the Year at the VH-1 Fashion Awards. In 1998, LaChapelle was ranked as one of the top photographers in the country, according to American Photo magazine. He won the award for Best Rock Video of the Year for directing No Doubt’s It’s My Life.
LaChapelle is Catholic and often uses religious symbolism in his work.
LaChapelle is bi-polar, but as he considers drugs to not work for him, he is careful to monitor his mental health. In the mid-1980s, LaChapelle lost his then boyfriend to AIDS. He fled 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." He was particularly struck by that culture's insistence on originality, rather than copying. For him, Los Angeles had been "the literal opposite".
In 2006, LaChapelle abruptly quit 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 hadn't 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 a 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."
LaChapelle cites a number of artists who have influenced his photography. In a 2009 interview, he mentioned the Baroque painters Andrea Pozzo and Caravaggio as two of his favorites. A critic has noted that LaChapelle's work has been influenced by Salvador Dalí, Jeff Koons, Michelangelo, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol. Richard Avedon noted that of all the photographers inventing surreal images, LaChapelle has the potential to be the genre's Magritte.
Quotes from others about the person
Helmut Newton has also contributed to the discourse on LaChapelle, stating in a NYT 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.'"
While living in London, he married the female publicist of the UK pop star Marilyn and the marriage lasted a year.
