Ellen von Unwerth
I Did It My Way, 1993
Harry Benson
Halston and André Leon Talley, Tanglewood, Massachusetts, 1975
David LaChapelle
My Own Liz, 2003
Arthur Elgort
Oscar de la Renta and Karl Lagerfeld, Paris, 2002
Ellen von Unwerth
Two models in John Galliano, 1993
Patrick Demarchelier
RuPaul, 1998
Slim Aarons
Truman Capote at home in his Brooklyn Heights apartment, New York, 1958
Paul Tanqueray
Cecil Beaton, 1937
Fergus Greer
Leigh Bowery: Session 1, Look 2, 1988
Horst P. Horst
Gertrude Stein with Basket, Paris, circa 1930
Abe Frajndlich
Horst P. Horst, Oyster Bay, New York, 1988
Francesco Scavullo
Portrait of Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff, 1974
Bruce Weber
Ray, John and Eric, Bear Pond, Adirondack Park, NY 1989
Helmut Newton
Rich Girls, Bordighera, Italy, 1982
Herb Ritts
Fred with Tires, Hollywood, 1984
Chris von Wangenheim
Gia Carangi and Sandy Linter, 1979
Len Prince
Three Wrestlers, Puerto Rico, 1992
Abe Frajndlich
Statues at the home of Horst P. Horst, Oyster Bay, New York, 1988
David LaChapelle
David Hockney: The Golden Hour, 2017
Arthur Elgort
Fire Island, New York, 1976
Ron Galella
Divine and Grace Jones at Grace Jones’ birthday party, Studio 54, New York, 1978
David LaChapelle
Diesel Jeans, Victory Day, 1945, 1994
In 1995, Italian denim brand Diesel ran a campaign photographed by David LaChapelle which looked like something torn from a school history textbook or a copy of LIFE magazine - but with a significant difference. The black and white image shown above appeared to depict D-Day celebrations of a US Naval ship but in the foreground of the image two sailors stood embracing, their mouths locked together in a kiss which recalled AIDS activists Gran Fury’s famous ‘read my lips’ poster. At the height of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" – the controversial policy which banned openly LGBTQ+ people from serving in the US Military – the ad was published around the world.
For LaChapelle, the campaign created a response he couldn’t anticipate. “Neither of us knew the impact of what we were doing,” he remembers, referring to himself and Diesel founder Renzo Rosso. “The impact was huge because it was seen in 72 countries. At the time, in 1995, two men kissing – that had never been seen before like that, internationally. People thought I'd taken an old photograph and added them digitally, like I was blaspheming a photo of D-Day by superimposing two guys kissing on it. I just took that to mean that the art direction was really good.”
Out of his immense body of work, LaChapelle says that this image is particularly significant for him. Once, he was driving out in the desert in California, and stopped at a small gay and lesbian bar. “There it was behind the bar, taped up from the magazine, all yellow,” he remembers. “That was like it being in the best gallery or the best museum in the world. It meant something to people.”
- From “Dazed” Magazine, 2017