From early aughts icons like Britney Spears to contemporary divas like Dua Lipa and Lizzo, photographer David LaChapelle has become the premiere celebrity portraitist, with his images gracing the covers of a whopping 19 Rolling Stone issues.
LaChapelle’s decades-long career is now the focus of a new exhibition at Fotografiska, titled “Make Believe,” that spans all six floors of the museum. A big chunk of the exhibition is dedicated to his chronicling of America’s entertainers, sure, but it also takes a deeper look into the artist’s long career.
The exhibit’s foundation is Chapelle’s early images from the ’80s, which responded to the AIDS crisis, and also includes his environmentally focused series, his fashion shoots, and his latest work from earlier this year. Throughout, we see how he often subtlety nods to art history in a myriad of ways.
Below is a small sample from the 150 works on view in the new exhibit.
