David LaChapelleRebirth of Venus2009
2009
About the Item
- Creator:David LaChapelle (1964, American)
- Creation Year:2009
- Dimensions:Height: 40 in (101.6 cm)Width: 30.75 in (78.11 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2910472872
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.
- David and Amanda, New YorkBy David LaChapelleLocated in New York, NYAmanda Lepore’s birth name was Armand Lepore. In the early 1980’s, three decades before transgender rights became a social issue, she began her devotion to the plastic surgery that would transform her in to a downtown New York icon and frequent muse to photographer David LaChapelle. Filmmaker Joel Schumacher has called Lepore a “moving sculpture...Category
Early 2000s Modern Portrait Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Fish Stick: Devon Aoki in Agent Provocateur, LondonBy David LaChapelleLocated in New York, NYEdition of 7 + 3 Artist’s Proofs Signed by the photographerCategory
1990s Modern Portrait Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Traditional Indian dance mask, NicaraguaBy Susan MeiselasLocated in New York, NYThis photograph is an edition of 3 and is signed by the photographer. Susan Meiselas was born in Maryland. After teaching photography at New York public schools, her photographs of women doing striptease at New England fairs were published in her first book, Carnival Strippers, in 1976. Meiselas joined Magnum Photos that same year and became particularly known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992 and received the Cornell Capa Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in 2005. Meiselas’ photograph of a Nicaraguan rebel concealing his identity with a traditional Monimbo Indian dance mask...Category
1970s Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Howard Hughes at Howard Hawks’ East/West Croquet MatchBy Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYStaley-Wise Gallery offers photographic prints from the Slim Aarons Archive, owned and housed by Getty Images Archive in London. All photographs are printed and authorized by the Get...Category
1950s Portrait Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Peggy Guggenheim at the Palazzo Venier Dei Leoni, Venice, ItalyBy Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYStaley-Wise Gallery offers photographic prints from the Slim Aarons Archive, owned and housed by Getty Images Archive in London. All photographs are printed and authorized by the Get...Category
1970s Portrait Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Good Shot: Marion B (Jo) Carstairs, Little Whale Kay, BahamasBy Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYStaley-Wise Gallery offers photographic prints from the Slim Aarons Archive, owned and housed by Getty Images Archive in London. All photographs are printed and authorized by the Get...Category
1960s Portrait Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Carlton Hotel by Slim AaronsBy Slim AaronsLocated in Brighton, GBFor a limited time only you these Slim Aarons prints are available to purchase at 15% discount. Please contact the gallery for any queries. Please bear in mind that all prints are p...Category
20th Century American Modern Landscape Photography
MaterialsColor, C Print, Photographic Paper
- Norman Parkinson 'Wenda and Ostriches'By Norman ParkinsonLocated in New York, NYNorman Parkinson Wenda and Ostriches 1951 (printed later) C print 20 x 16 inches Estate stamped and numbered edition of 21 on verso with certificate of authenticity from the Norman ...Category
1950s Modern Black and White Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Terry O'Neill 'Luke and Leia, Star Wars'By Terry O'NeillLocated in New York, NYLuke and Leia (Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher), Star Wars, 1977 Chromogenic print 30 x 30 inches estate edition of 50 American actors Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher in costume as brot...Category
1970s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsC Print
- Sea Drive by Slim AaronsBy Slim AaronsLocated in Brighton, GBFor a limited time only these Slim Aarons prints are available to purchase at 15% discount. Please contact the gallery for any queries. Please bear in mind that all prints are produ...Category
20th Century American Modern Landscape Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, Color, Lambda, C Print
- Palm Springs Pool by Slim AaronsBy Slim AaronsLocated in Brighton, GBFor a limited time only these Slim Aarons prints are available to purchase at 15% discount. Please contact the gallery for any queries. Please bear in mind that all prints are produ...Category
20th Century American Modern Portrait Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, Color, Lambda, C Print
- Catch Up by the Pool by Slim AaronsBy Slim AaronsLocated in Brighton, GBFor a limited time only these Slim Aarons prints are available to purchase at 15% discount. Please contact the gallery for any queries. Please bear in mind that all prints are produ...Category
20th Century American Modern Portrait Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, Color, Lambda, C Print
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.