La Chapelle

David (1963). American photographer, originally from Canada. He arrived in New York in 1978 and worked as a doorkeeper at Studio 54. In that mythical night club he met Andy Warhol, who introduced him to the editorial staff of Interview. But his real chance to shine as a photographer was offered him by the magazine Details, which gave him a commission. From that moment, whenever his camera was on the fashion business, he created an alternative vision made up of colors and joyful sensuality, born from a combination of the pop, cyber, and rock cultures. Like a brand, his pictures are almost always recognizable. He exaggerates without scruple, mixes reality with invention, uses the computer wisely, and describes a reality that exists only in his imagination.
&Quad;His work has been published in Interview, Vanity Fair, the New York Times magazines, and The Face and has made campaigns for Diesel, Mal, Levi’s, Estée Lauder, and Iceberg. He has made a promo for Giorgio Armani, the brand that launched him in 1991, using a black-and-white picture of the face of an angel on a full page in the most important Italian newspapers. Very few know that the original color picture appeared in 1992 in L’invincibile ripreso, a joint exhibition on the theme of angels in Milan, which was his first European exhibition. He has had various solo exhibitions around the world, but was still unknown to the public at large in Italy until he was given a solo exhibition at the Museum Ken Damy in Brescia in 1993. He has published two books so far. Like their author they are unusual in size and original in composition: LaChapelle Land (1996) and Hotel LaChapelle (1999).