Born in 1963 in Connecticut, USA, David LaChapelle is an internationally renowned artist known for his vivid fashion photographs and baroque images populated by celebrities. Skilfully fusing art history with references to popular culture, metaphysical questions with street culture, he paints a disquieting portrait of 21st century values and lifestyles. David LaChapelle is now one of the most widely published photographers in the world. Since 2006 he has been focusing on the artistic side of his work.

Born in 1977 in Los Angeles, Kehinde Wiley lives and works in New York. Examining issues of racial and sexual identity, his works create collisions where art history and street culture come face to face. The artist makes eroticised heroes of the invisible, those traditionally banished from representations of power. His work reinterprets the vocabulary of power and prestige, part politically-charged critique, part an avowed fascination with the luxury and bombast of Western symbols of male domination.