BIOGRAPHY
David Koppel served his photographic apprenticeship in the rough-and-tumble world of the Fleet Street paparazzi in 1980s London when his skills captured the very 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 and marked him out as that rarity among press photographers: the artist with a camera.
Building on the reputation gained through the photographs for the book Still Waters, his black-and-white portraits of ordinary people now rank among the many famous names in his portfolio.
Koppel also went one better: in 2002 he bought the St Giles Street Gallery in Norwich with the express purpose of displaying and selling the best of local and international contemporary art and photography.
The Gallery closed in 2017 after 15 years of selling worldwide and now remains an online presence, streamlined to an ever discerning marketplace
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. www.pap-art.co.uk
This led to him experimenting with digital images of his photographs on canvas. His collaborative work with the artist John Kiki in this medium has produced several masterpieces, such as one canvas of Mick Jagger and Keith Richard as two Regency wraiths, and another of Marlon Brando looking more godfatherly than the Godfather himself and have been shown in galleries both here in the UK and abroad.
Other experiments in recent years with mixed media montages and silkscreen printing demonstrate his willingness to be bold, experimental and eager to push the boundaries of painting and photography.
David Koppel continues to paint, to photograph, to exhibit, experiment and explore …..
AUTHOR: PETER THOMPSON ELVIS MEETS THE BEATLES ONASSIS JACK NICHOLSON