David LaChapelle was born in Connecticut and attended high school at North Carolina School of the Arts. He embarked on a career in photography, and by the late 1980’s began showing his work in New York City galleries. LaChapelle’s work caught the eye of Andy Warhol who offered him his first job as a photographer at Interview Magazine, in which his photographs of celebrities garnered positive attention. Before long, LaChapelle was shooting for a variety of top editorial publications and creating some of the most memorable editorial and advertising campaigns of his generation.
Having been established as a fixture in contemporary photography, LaChapelle branched out to direct commercials, music videos, and theatrical stage productions, including Elton John’s Red Piano live show.
In 2004, an underground movement of young dancers in South Central Los Angeles compelled David to create the short documentary entitled Krumped. LaChapelle developed the short into the feature film, RIZE, which officially opened the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, followed by a critically acclaimed global theatrical release.
In 2006, LaChapelle returned to his roots in fine art photography. He has since shown his work in exhibitions across the globe at major institutions including Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The National Portrait Gallery of London and Washington D.C., Barbican Centre, London, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan Palazzo Reale, Milan and Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice.
Over the course of his 30-year career, LaChapelle has been honored with numerous photography awards and a doctorate from University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
In fall of 2017, LaChapelle released Lost + Found and Good News, published by TASCHEN. The release of these two books completed David’s five-book anthology, which began with LaChapelle Land (1996), and continued with Hotel LaChapelle (1999) and Heaven to Hell (2006).