Professional Influences
- Andy Warhol... extraordinary pop-art pioneer Andy Warhol was indeed the catalyst that launched LaChapelle's stellar career...
- David LaChapelle recalls the first Andy Warhol painting he ever saw, the Gold Marilyn Monroe on a fourth-grade field trip to a museum. "I just stopped in front of the painting and stared at it for the longest time," he recalls. "I thought it was the most sexy, dirty, glamorous painting I had ever seen. Andy Warhol was my favorite artist since I was a kid."
- A serendipitous journey to NYC led LaChapelle to the artist behind this mesmerizing fourth-grade moment. At age 15, he left home for Manhattan where he worked as a busboy at Studio 54. "I met Andy Warhol," LaChapelle recounts, "and he said I should be a model. I said I was a photographer, and he said I should model, too. He said, 'Come and show me your pictures.' So I did, and he said, 'These are great.' I thought, 'Oh, my God, he thought my pictures were great.' What I didn't realize was that he actually believed that everything was great!"
- A year later, David LaChapelle had a gallery show and people from Interview (Warhol's magazine) attended. "I got work at Interview and worked there for them for every issue until Andy died".