Artists and Prostitutes
 
First Edition
Signed
Numbered Edition of 2500
Out of Print
 
Publication: TASCHEN
Publication date: September 2005
Editors: David LaChapelle
Format: 8.1" x 18.5" x 24.6"
Weight: 42.19 lbs.
Features: 698 pages, full color, hardcover book in clamshell set with separate Index
Language: English
ISBN: 9783822816172
 
 
 
From the publisher: Celebrity surrealism, capitalist realism, this SUMO publication captures the high spectacle and pop saturation of photographer David LaChapelle. The massive 698-page tome includes the artist’s most memorable work, from portraits of Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson to Tupac Shakur and Elizabeth Taylor. With only 2,500 copies worldwide, numbered and signed by LaChapelle, Artists & Prostitutes is a contemporary sensation with all the grandeur of a Renaissance masterpiece.
 
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David LaChapelle was born in Connecticut in 1963 and attended high school at North Carolina School of The Arts.  Originally enrolled as a painter, he developed an analogue technique by hand-painting his own negatives to achieve a sublime spectrum of color before processing his film.
 
At age 17, LaChapelle moved to New York City.  Following his first photography show at Gallery 303, he was hired by Andy Warhol to work at Interview Magazine. 
 
Through his experimentation with color, unique composition, and imaginative narratives, LaChapelle began to expand the genre of photography.  His staged tableau, portrait and still life works challenged devices of traditional photography and his pictures quickly gained international interest. By 1997, The New York Times predicted, “LaChapelle is certain to influence the work of a new generation...in the same way that Mr. Avedon pioneered so much of what is familiar today.”
 
In the decades since, LaChapelle has become one of the most published photographers throughout the world with an anthology of books including LaChapelle Land (1996), Hotel LaChapelle (1999), Heaven to Hell (2006), Lost & Found, and Good News (2017).  Simultaneously, his work has expanded into music video, film and stage projects.  His 2005 feature film Rize was released theatrically in 17 countries. Many of his still and film works have become iconic archetypes of America in the 21st Century.
 
In the past 30 years, LaChapelle has exhibited internationally in galleries and museums including the National Portrait Gallery (London), Musee de Monnaie (Paris), Barbican Centre (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Musee D’Orsay (Paris), Groninger Museum (The Netherlands), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome), Palazzo Reale (Milano), National Portrait Gallery (Washington D.C.), Casa dei Tre Oci (Venice), La Venaria Reale (Turin) and MUDEC (Milan).