David LaChapelle was born was born March 11, 1963. LaChapelle was born in Fairfield, Connecticut. LaChapelle’s career in photography began in the 1980’s in New York City galleries. After he had attended the North Carolina School of Arts, he moved to New York and enrolled at the Art Students League and the School of Visual Arts.
LaChapelle’s career began to advance whenever his work caught the eye of Andy Warhol; Warhol letter offered him his first job as a photographer at Interview Magazine. LaChapelle started to become more and more famous whenever his photographs of celebrities gained positive attention. Before long, he was shooting for a few different top editorial publications and also “creating some of the most memorable advertising campaigns of his generation.”
David LaChapelle’s imaged have appeared on the covers and pages of Italian Vogue, French Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone, and i-D. LaChapelle also had a wide variety of celebrities that he photographed; Tupac Shakur, Madonna, Amanda Lepore, Eminem, Philip Johnson, Lance Armstrong, Pamela Anderson, Lil’ Kim, Uma Thurma, Elizabeth Taylor, David Beckham, Paris HIlton, Jeff Koons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hillary Clinton, Muhammad Ali, and Britney Spears, just to name a few. After LaChapelle was established as a known photographer, he decided to try something new and began to direct music videos, theatrical events, and documentary films. He directed big name stars such as; Christina Aguilera, Moby, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, The Vines, and No Doubt.
I chose David LaChapelle as my inspirational photographer because, for the most part, he has done exactly what I want to do some day in photography. No matter how unlikely it me be, I want to someday take pictures of Celebrities for covers of magazines and other photo shoots; that’s exactly what David LaChapelle is and has done for a career. Even though LaChapelle’s style isn't completely similar to mine, he is still an inspiration to me.