Celebrity and sorrow feature in David LaChapelle's New York show

The US photographer David LaChapelle’s new blockbuster show in New York at the Fotografiska venue includes a wealth of celebrity snapshots, capturing headline-hitting stars such as Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and Madonna. The exhibition Make Believe (9 September-
9 January 2023) features more than 150 works spanning LaChapelle’s 40-year career. Several show celebrities in outlandish quasi-religious settings and poses, such as Kim Kardashian in Mary Magdalene Abiding Lamentation (2019). However, the show is not all about the fickle world of stardom. LaChapelle’s earliest works were created during the Aids epidemic, a tragedy witnessed first-hand by both the photographer and Andy Warhol. LaChapelle met the founder of The Factory, a fellow Catholic, in 1986, and photographed him later that year against a bookshelf of antique bibles. It was Warhol’s last ever portrait sitting.