David LaChapelle was born in Connecticut in 1969. He trained as a fine artist at North Carolina School of the Arts before moving to New York . Upon his arrival LaChapelle enrolled in both the Arts Student League and the School of Visual Arts . Andy Warhol offered him his first professional job shooting for Interview magazine. Recently ranked among the top ten Most Important People in Photography in the world by American Photo, he has continued to garner numerous awards.
David LaChapelle’s unfettered images, both bizarre and gorgeous, have appeared on and in between the covers of Italian Vogue, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, i-D, Vibe, Interview, The Face, British GQ, etc.. He is currently under contract with Vanity Fair. His uncompromising dedication to originality is legend in the worlds of fashion, film, and advertising. LaChapelle has done advertising campaigns for a variety of clients including L’Oreal, Iceberg, MTV, Ecko, Diesel Jeans, Sirius, Ford, Sky Vodka and the Got Milk campaign. David has photographed numerous album covers and packages for such artists as Macy Gray, Moby, No Doubt, Whitney Houston, Lil’ Kim, Elton John, and Madonna. Worlds collide in David LaChapelle’s Hotel LaChapelle (Callaway, 1999), a fresh collection of unforgettable color images. LaChapelle continues to create photographs that confront our visual tastes and reimagine our contemporary landscape. Hotel LaChapelle follows the photographer’s best-selling debut book, LaChapelle Land (Callaway, 1996), in assembling an explosive mix of celebrities and models including Madonna, Leonardo DeCaprio, Pamela Anderson, Uma Thurman, Marilyn Manson, Alexander McQueen, Mark Wahlberg, Drew Barrymore, and Elton John in an extravagant boxed volume. David LaChapelle’s photographs have been showcased in exhibitions at the Staley-Wise and Toni Shafrazi Galleries in New York, the Fahey-Klein Gallery in California as well as internationally at Art Trend in , Camerawork in , Sozzani and Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Itay, and most recently at the Barbican Museum in London.

In addition to his still photography LaChapelle directs music videos for select artists including Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, No Doubt, Whitney Houston, Moby, Macy Gray, Blink 182, Elton John, Christina Aguilera, and The Vines. His haunting video for Moby’s “Natural Blues,” featuring Moby as an old man and Christina Ricci as an angel, had a huge presence in the music video industry in 2000. At the MTV Europe Music Awards, “Natural Blues” was named Best Video of the year, the result of a popular vote of over 7 million viewers. This was striking in that it was only LaChapelle’s third video. “Natural Blues” was also nominated in the , in the MTV Video Awards’ “Best Male Artist” category, and for best “Visionary Video” at the VH-1/ Vogue Fashion Awards.
LaChapelle has also added stage director to his list of credits. David LaChapelle conceived and designed Elton John’s ‘The Red Piano’ show at Caesar’s Coliseum in Las Vegas .