La Monnaie de Paris will present from february, 5 to may, 31 the biggest and the thoroughest David LaChapelle’s retrospective ever organised in France.

Almost 200 works will be exposed in the rooms of the 1st floor of French hotel, a pre-revolutionary building next to the Seine, featuring portraits of Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeff Koons, Elton John, Paris Hilton and of many others celebrities.

Glamorous, provocative, excessive, baroque, surreal, grotesque, LaChapelle’s photography subverts rules and expresses a perverse vision of the world where “the apocalypse is sold to us on television”, as he said sitting in the hall of the Hôtel de la Monnaie.

LaChapelle, voted photographer of the year back in 1996 by French and American Photo magazine, received his first professional commission from Andy Warhol, and the influence is clear in his work with shining colors and world of Hollywood stars’ representation.

For the first time, will be shown some recently created series, as  “Awakenings”, inspired by Genesis,  “The Deluge”, inspired by Sixtine Chapel, and “Auguries of Innocence”, after the William Blake poem.

Essential Informations

When: 6th February – 31st May 2009
Where: Hotel De La Monnaie De Paris, 2, rue Guénégaud, 75006 Paris.

Opening hours: every day from 10.30am – 7pm, late night opening on Mondays and Fridays until 10pm
Admission: 12 euros – free for children under the age of ten.