David Lachapelle

The work of David LaChapelle can be seen everywhere you turn, be it on a magazine rack, album cover, advertisement, or even a music video. Dubbed the "New Surrealist", LaChapelle's vivid, colorful, bizarre, and humorous images have been admired by millions and have made him one of the most famous photographers alive today. Since the start of his professional career, LaChapelle's work has attracted the attention of many other artists, celebrities, journalists, and regular people. I first noticed his work on advertisements in magazines several years ago. I immediately felt drawn to his images- they are photographs I could stare at for hours, playing out in my head the story each photograph is telling and what it says about the character of the individual he is portraying. I am amazed at how he is able to pick up certain quirks in his subject's personality and build entire scenes around the unusual parts of their character. Each piece of work he creates is anything but mundane- even his simpler images tell a story. Born in Connecticut in 1969, David LaChapelle learned to love the art of photography at an early age. He grew up observing his mother, a non-professional photographer with a flair for appropriating a fantasy life onto film, whose influence can still be seen in his work today. He began taking photographs in High School, where he stated his original inspiration was "white-trash culture". Upon graduation, he moved to North Carolina to attend the North Carolina School of Arts, where he trained as a fine artist. A short time later at age nineteen, David LaChapelle made the decision to move to New York's Lower East Side and enrolled in both the Arts Student League and the School of Visual Arts. Although he was receiving an excellent education at two of New York City's finest art schools, David LaChapelle states that his real education didn't begin until he had a chance meeting with Andy Warhol, who was so impressed with his work that he immediately