Before They Were Famous: Lady Gaga
In 2007, a Universal Music publicist told me an unknown artist was going to be the next Madonna. I believed her enough to go meet the girl at a nightclub in West Hollywood. A year later, the whole planet knew her name.
This is the story of shooting Lady Gaga before she was famous.
The tip
In 2007 I was running TDINK, my online magazine, when a Universal Music publicist contacted me about an artist nobody had heard of. Her pitch was blunt: this girl is going to be the next Madonna. She told me to meet her at Area Nightclub in West Hollywood.
I went, and interviewed her for about ten minutes before we shot. I asked what kind of music she did. Pop, she said. I asked if it was pop like Britney Spears. She said she did her own version of pop, blended with a lot of European techno.
Her name came from the Queen song "Radio Gaga." Her producer Rob Fusari thought she was so theatrical that the name stuck. She called herself the do-it-yourself pop artist. She wrote the music, she designed the clothing, she designed the stage. "Its completely 150 thousand percent my vision," she told me. Her influences ran from David Bowie and Madonna to Talking Heads and the Beatles. Her first single, "Just Dance," was about to come out.
I opened the interview in TDINK by telling readers: you might not know her yet, but you definitely will.
Just the two of us
After the interview we shot, just the two of us, alone in the club. Not even a publicist was there. Nobody took a picture of us together, so I have no photograph from that night with both of us in it.
I told her to sit on the couch, knees together, feet apart. I told her to put her sunglasses on to contrast with her blonde hair. She wore a black Stella McCartney dress and a pink Chanel scarf. That was the whole direction, and that was the whole crew.
Then she was famous
"Just Dance" came out in April 2008. The Fame followed that August. By 2009 she was the biggest pop star on earth, and the publicist's "next Madonna" line stopped sounding like hype.
Twelve years later
In 2018 my friend Vaja took me to the Grammys. Gaga won three Grammys that night, and Vaja got a call from Dawn Miller inviting us to the Valley for Gaga and Mark Ronson's party at Oil Can Harry's, a dive bar. Adele was dancing, the crowd was electric, and Gaga was onstage dancing up a storm. I went up and reintroduced myself, telling her I had done one of her first photoshoots at Area Nightclub. She was sweet about it and asked when. I said 2007. She said, "Wow."
I showed her the portrait on my phone and congratulated her. I told her she inspired me. Then we danced together onstage for a good ten minutes. Nobody was taking pictures, just like Area all those years before. It was a time before social media. All these years later, I still don't have a picture with her. I have the memories, and this portrait.
The takeaway for photographers
Take the small editorial shoots. TDINK was my own online magazine. There was no budget, no crew, and no publicist in the room. But that night built an asset no paying client could have given me: one of the first portraits ever taken of Lady Gaga.
Unknowns become somebodies, and archives compound. When a publicist tells you an artist is going to be the next Madonna, you go to the nightclub and shoot the unknown like she is already famous. The frame you make in an empty club tonight can become the frame the world wants tomorrow. Twelve years later, I was showing her that portrait on my phone at her own afterparty. No assignment would have put me in that room.
That is how I still run my work as a fashion photographer in Los Angeles. The portfolio is not just the famous names, it is the unknowns you believed in first. Most celebrity photographers in Los Angeles will show you their covers. Ask what they shot before the cover existed.
Frequently asked questions
When did David Christopher Lee photograph Lady Gaga? In 2007, at Area Nightclub in West Hollywood, for his online magazine TDINK, arranged by a Universal Music publicist who told him she would be the next Madonna.
Was Lady Gaga famous when he photographed her? No. Her first single, "Just Dance," was about to come out when I shot her. It released in April 2008, The Fame followed that August, and by 2009 she was a global star.
How do I book a shoot with David Christopher Lee? Get in touch here. I have spent 27 years as a celebrity photographer in Los Angeles and New York, shooting everyone from unknowns who became icons to the icons themselves, and every session gets the same standard.
About the author: David Christopher Lee is a Los Angeles celebrity photographer with 27 years of experience, shooting for GQ, Vogue, InStyle, People, and brands around the world.
Book a Shoot: Book your shoot. If you need a photographer who saw the next Madonna in an empty nightclub, that is what I do.