David Lachapelle

david lachepelle was a portrait photographer, he made photography modern. He travels the world pushing the boundaries of photography.

At the moment he work in new york and photographs many celebrities, he is influenced by Andy warhol.

From his pictures you can see he is a contemporary photographer his pictures are sexy and surreal and naturally crosses the art/ fashion genre.

His mum introduced him to photography she used photography as an escape. Between him and his team he creates the screens for his 'crazy' pictures. 

David started doing wedding photos then his approached change after 8-10 years he now considers himself a conceptual photographer.

His shoots can take anything up to 2 days to complete, money is never a limit, often putting a lot of his own money into a project. There is always a risk shoots won't pay off like when he used photos as a back drop. Most celebrities are aware of david and want him to photograph them. He plays music on the sets to make the celebrities feel comfortable in front of the lens.

He has to come up with loads of ideas for sets so the celebrities can pick the one they are the most comfortable with, he researches each artist before the shoots to get inspiration. Each set shows you loads about the celebrity in them, he lives to see people look beautiful and sexy, some will allow david to create real intense scenes so its shows a lot about how far they are willing to go. He never repeats a scene, and always gets nervous before a shoot.

David wasn't born with money he came from a small town where he felt he didn't fit in and that there was no option but to go to new york where he went to art school and met andy warhol, where his aim became to make everyone look good. He worked for magazines like time vogue, vanity.

The colours in the photos are bright and rich, full on, over saturated and highly polished, its like he's trying to achieve perfection when he takes the photos and when he edits them.

'photography is like a painting, it can be any thing i want it to be'

He didn't wanna photograph the horrors of the world.

He moved into doing music videos, these are darker and less funny, more serious. He says they are still heart felt. Some look like they are nightmare themed. He never thought his images would be shown in a gallery, he only aimed to get them shown in magazines.

Aim is to photograph people that make up the world, people from popular culture.