DAVID LACHAPELLE | WORKHOUSE #TBT

For over five years, Workhouse served as the exclusive Agency of Record for photographer David LaChapelle responsible for all manners of communications exclusively handling worldwide publicity, promotion and special events and sponsorships campaigns from 1996- 2000

Challenge: Position emerging photographer David LaChapelleto a worldwide audience. Give celebrity and photography credibility to each initiative. Expand personal, pop cultural relevance, art awareness to art-buying customer base. 

Strategy: Workhouse overhauled LaChapelle’s image with an aggressive PR Campaign. We created strategic alliances with fashion, retail, beauty, museum,  gallery and entertainment companies expanding LaChapelle’s reach increasing top-of-mind recognition across all key segments. Workhouse communications included marketing & branding, public relations,  crisis management, promotion, sponsorship, production and special events

Result: The spirit of these efforts created an almost immediate LaChapellemedia identification. Press included Oprah, Good Morning America, magazines Departures, W, Town & Country, Vogue, the Associated Press, WSJ and NYT. Today, David Lachapelle is  ranked among the top ten "Most Important People in Photography" in the world by American Photo, he has continued to garner numerous awards including five Life Magazine Eisie Awards, VH-1's "Photographer of The Year", The International Center of Photography's "Applied Photographer of The Year" Award, and "Best New Photographer" by both French and American Photo Magazine.

We successfully oversaw the grand openings of gallery & museum exhibitions and events in Paris, Rome, New York, London & Berlin. Using this fame and experience, Workhouse was able to translate this success into collaborative line of products, special display creations linked to the universe of books, guitars, watches, bags and more. Workhouse extended LaChapelle’s brand image while keeping his work relevant.