David LaChapelle’s first major museum solo exhibition, make BELIEVE, is now running through January at Fotografiska. This marks the museum's first-ever building-wide show, presenting iconic images and new works establishing LaChapelle as one of the most influential artists of our time. 

Best known for his hyperreal, surrealistic portraits of pop stars, most are familiar with his work whether they realize it or not (he photographed Britneys Spears's first iconic Rolling Stone Cover, Travis Scott’s Astroworld Album, and Naomi Campbell’s Playboy spread to name a few). LaChapelle’s most famous works have been covered across leading print and digital fashion/culture magazines featuring those centered in the pop culture zeitgeist.

“I’m always interested in people making up our world, the celebrated figures...they say a lot about the nature of the time that we’re in.”*

But LaChapelle is more than a centerfold photographer; he’s our generation’s answer to Andy Warhol, with early beginnings at Interview Magazine to cement his status. As a young student, LaChapelle mixed his mastery of painting with his newfound love of photography, developing an “analog technique by hand-painting his negatives to achieve a sublime spectrum of color before processing his film.”** His first photography exhibit showcasing his work landed his role at Interview Magazine, witnessing Warhol’s genius firsthand.

Influenced by similar themes across these extraordinary artists' lives, both Warhol and LaChapell’s works are heavily influenced by religion, gender, capitalism, and the American dream. Where LaChapelle stood apart was his “mastery of color, unique composition, and imaginative narratives… (his work) expanded the genre of photography. His staged tableau, portrait, and still life work challenged devices of traditional photography, and his work quickly gained international interest.”** 

Fotografiska’s multi-floor exhibit snakes through extraordinary pieces curated by the artist, telling stories about his childhood, personal experiences during the AIDs crisis, views on American icons, and passion for the classics.

With over 150 works, the collection blurs “reality and fantasy of fame, faith, and the future.”** 

LaChapelle captured the day’s relevant characters and portrayed them in iconic scenes of his favorite Renaissance artists, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Da Vinci. He documented the 1980s aid crisis portraying his friends of the “queer community as saints, martyrs, and angels.” Deluge, After Deluge, Staircase to Paradise, and Rebirth of Venus, all play on themes of spirituality while recalling his favorite iconic European works. 

You’ll find that while, at first glance, his work may seem over the top, poking fun at media and celebrity culture, LaChapelle has an earnestness within his work and a deeper allegory. He’s not jesting or making light of subjects but showcasing humankind's beauty and nature using models and imagery already familiar to us. There’s the spectacle of NYC it-girl Amanda Lepore as his Marilyn, Kanye as Christ, multiple variations of the Annunciation, Naomi Campbell as Venus in the Rape of Africa, and his controversial Pieta featuring Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain. 

make BELIEVE is a cinematic exploration of LaChapelle’s lifetime of work, taking you through the decades and many eras that defined his indelible mark in the fashion and art scene. Immerse yourself in a rich world of characters and delight in the beauty of the absurd. Feel the passion emanating from the frames and become inspired by the scenes he dared to recreate. 

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*The Guaridian **Fotografiska

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