(Fairfield, Connecticut, USA 1963)

His first approach to photography was when he was 6 years old, during a family vacation in Puerto Rico. There he used the camera to portray his mother, Helga LaChapelle, who was wearing a bikini and drinking champagne on a balcony. From that moment, he became obsessed with photography.

At 15 he moved to New York. He lied about his age and got a job at Studio 54, where he cleaned the tables of great celebrities and artists, such as Liza Minnelli. Later, his father would take him and take him back to the south, where he forced him to study at the North Carolina School of the Arts. There were only 30 students in their course, so the teaching was exceptional.

After his return to New York, at 18, he went to work at the gay bar Browns. The economic necessity caused that David accepted the proposal of a subject, who requested that he practiced a fellatio in exchange for money.

Together with his boyfriend, the dancer Louis Albert, they were living in an apartment of humble conditions. After two years, Louis Albert died a victim of AIDS, as well as many friends of LaChapelle.

The crazy images of David LaChapelle, bizarre and fantastic, have appeared on the pages and covers of the magazines Vogue, Rolling Stone, i-D, Vibe, Interview, The Face and GQ, just to name a few.

His unconditional dedication to originality is a legend in the world of fashion, cinema and advertising. LaChapelle has participated in advertising campaigns for a variety of clients including L’Oreal, Iceberg, MTV, Ecko, Diesel Jeans, Sirius, Ford, Sky Vodka, Cervecería Cuahtemoc Moctezuma and the campaign Got Milk ?.

David has photographed numerous album covers for artists such as Macy Gray, Moby, No Doubt, Whitney Houston, Elton John, Christina Aguilera, Madonna and Kylie Minogue.

His first successful book, LaChapelle Land, was published in 1996 by the Collaway publishing house, bringing within its extravagant packaging, an explosive collection of portraits of celebrities and models, including Lady Gaga, Madonna, Shakira, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pamela Anderson, Uma Thurman, Marilyn Manson, Mark Wahlberg, Drew Barrymore and Elton John. The successor of this debut was the book Hotel LaChapelle, also edited by Collaway in 1999, where fresh images with unforgettable colors are exhibited. LaChapelle continues to produce photographs that confront our visual tastes, giving a new look to the current landscape.

One of her most recurrent muses is Amanda Lepore, with whom she has created images that show a peculiar sense of humor, including nudes.

His photographs have been exhibited in the galleries Staley-Wise and Toni Shafrazi Galleries in New York and Fahey-Klein in California, as well as in Art Trend in Austria, Camerawork in Germany, Sozzani and Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Italy, in the Barbican Museum in London and more recently in Mexico City and the MALBA in Argentina.

In addition to photography, LaChapelle directs music videos for select artists, such as The Dandy Warhols (not if you were the last junkie on earth), Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, No Doubt, Whitney Houston, Moby (Natural Blues, ) Macy Gray, Blink 182, Elton John, Christina Aguilera (“Dirrty”) and The Vines. It was planned to direct Madonna’s “Sorry” video clip, but she raised it with a touch of sleaze similar to “Dirrty,” and Madonna finally chose another director who would give a more upbeat touch.

His video for the song Natural Blues by Moby, had a strong presence in the music video industry during the year 2000, showing Moby as an old man and Christina Ricci as an angel. This work was awarded “Best Video of the Year” at the MTV Europe Music Awards, thanks to the popular vote of more than 7 million viewers. Being only the third video by David LaChapelle, was also nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards in the category “Best Male Video” and “Best Visionary Video” in the VH-1 / Vogue Fashion Awards.

David has also served as director of the show that his friend, the British singer Elton John, presented live in Las Vegas, called The Red Piano.

He has also been hired by major brands to direct his commercials, such as the clothing brand H & M, whose spot showed a fresh version of the classic story of Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.

The first film directed by David LaChapelle, Rize, was about the “krumping” style dance that invaded the city of Los Angeles and was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.

In 2011 he sued Barbadian singer Rihanna because her video «S & M» is based on several of his photographs.