David Koppel

David Koppel served his photographic apprenticeship in the rough-and-tumble world of the Fleet Street paparazzi in 1980's London, when his skill captured the essence of the Me decade that gave birth to the celebrity culture of today.

Koppel's classic photographs of Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Mohammed Ali appeared in every major newspaper and magazine in the UK, and marked him out as that rarity among press photographers: the artist with a camera.

Building on his reputation bolstered by photographs for the book Still Waters, Koppel's black and white portraits of ordinary people now rank among the many famous names in his portfolio.

His own photographic work had already been recognised with an exhibition of Pap Art^® -- now a Koppel trademark -- in Zurich, and a glowing write-up in the Sunday Times Magazine.

This led him to experiment with digital photographic images on canvas. His collaboration with John Kiki in this medium has already produced several masterpieces, among them canvasses of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as two Regency wraiths and Marlon Brando looking more godfatherly than the Godfather himself.

Their first joint showing of Pap Art^® will be at the Lang Gallery in Shoreditch at the end of November 2004, with a preview at London's On The Wall Show at the Olympia from 30 September to 3 October 2004 (stand F59).