Teenage runaway-turned-Studio 54 busboy and photography GOAT: Iconic images spanning David LaChapelle’s 40-year career are on display in NYC for his biggest show ever in the US
- After being commissioned by Andy Warhol to shoot for Interview Magazine in the 1980s, photographer David LaChapelle, 59, spent 40 years capturing colorful photos of celebrities and pop culture
- At just 15, LaChapelle ran away from home to New York City, where he found a job as a busboy at Studio 54, and used the sight of celebrities at their wildest to inspire the photographs he would later take of them
- Currently on view through January 8th at the Fotografiska New York is make BELIEVE, a retrospective of LaChapelle’s explosive career featuring over 150 works
- The exhibition includes numerous photos of celebrities from 1984 to the present, including Andy Warhol himself, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and Tupac
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Photographer David LaChapelle has been shooting out stunning, color-saturated, celebrity-studded photography since Andy Warhol first hired him for Interview Magazine in the 1980s.
LaChapelle, 59, had run away from his North Carolina home when he was just 15 and found work as a busboy at the notorious Studio 54, where he watched celebrities cavort and carried on with famous abandon. Although his parents eventually took him home, Chapelle returned to New York City at 18 and frequented Studio 54 in those days to inspire the innovative art he was producing.
“I like to see celebrities who act in front of my camera like they did in Studio 54. They were wild,” LaChapelle told Newsweek in 1996.
Currently on view at Fotografiska New York through January 8 is make BELIEVE, a retrospective of LaChapelle’s explosive 40-year career featuring over 150 works.
The exhibition includes numerous photos of celebrities from 1984 to the present, including Andy Warhol himself, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and Tupac.
LaChapelle’s David Bowie: Self Preservation was filmed in Los Angeles in 1995
‘My Own Marilyn’ was shot in New York in 2002. LaChapelle has both Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol in the photo
LaChapelle’s Britney Spears: I’m Not Your Toy was filmed in Louisiana in 1999
LaChapelle’s Mary Magdalene: Abiding Lamentation with Kim Kardashian in Los Angeles in 2018
LaChapelle’s Tupac: Becoming Clean was filmed in Los Angeles in 1996
LaChapelle’s Angelina Jolie: Lusty Spring was filmed in Los Angeles in 2001
Archangel Michael: And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer, starring Michael Jackson, was filmed in Hawaii in 2009
Andy Warhol: Last Sitting was filmed in New York in 1986. Warhol gave LaChapelle his first serious foray into photography
LaChapelle’s Kanye West: Passion of the Christ was filmed in Los Angeles in 2006
Lizzo: Ottoman Empire was filmed in Los Angeles in 2019
Lady Gaga: Could You Fix Me If I Broke was recorded in Los Angeles in 2009
Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia was filmed in Los Angeles in 2020
“Doja Cat: Gone With the Wind” was photographed in Los Angeles in 2021
Lana Del Rey: Parade Float was filmed in Los Angeles in 2017
LaChapelle’s “Death by Hamburger” was photographed in Los Angeles in 2001
After the Deluge: Statue was filmed in Los Angeles in 2007
LaChapelle’s “Chanel on Ice” photographed in Oregon in 1997
“Behold,” photographed in Hawaii in 2015
When Bobo Went Mad was filmed in Paris in 1995
LaChapelle’s Gas: BP was filmed in Hawaii in 2012