Respec' for DJs

Superstar DJs have already beaten pop and rock acts at their own game - and now the kings and queens of clubland have been honoured with a prestigious exhibition. With club legends such as Fatboy Slim, Pete Tong and Roger Sanchez more famous than many of their pop and rock rivals, it was only matter of time before their success was celebrated with an exhibition of portraits.

Today's dance music stars also include new faces who have proved a hit on the decks - women DJs, who have forced their way into the male-dominated world of house music. The National Portrait Gallery, whose works include paintings of Napoleon, Sir Walter Raleigh and Anne Boleyn, is to stage the show featuring photographs of famous DJs. Fatboy Slim, Danny Rampling and Todd Terry - a New Yorker who has inspired a generation of DJs since the Eighties - are among subjects to have been photographed by Chris Lopez for the "djs by lopez" show.

But it will also mark the achievement of female DJs. Lottie, known to millions as the encouraging DJ who took a classical cellist under her wing and turned her into a credible house DJ for the show Faking It, is the subject of one portrait.

Known as the Queen of Ibiza thanks to her stand-out sets on the clubbers' island, Lottie - real name Charlotte Horne - has played sets in London, Dublin, Tokyo and Singapore in the past month alone. She can command more than £25,000 for a few hours' work. London-based Lottie, who also DJs on Radio 1, said: "Chris has a real talent for capturing the essence of someone on camera."

Lopez, 33, the in-house photographer for Sony Records for the past five years, said Lottie was his favourite subject. "She was such good fun, and so natural."Lottie's colleague and Faking It co-star Anne Savage was also photographed by Lopez. Like Lottie, Savage is known as a hard house DJ - a more aggressive form of traditional house music - and first DJed at a club in Burnley, Lancashire, for £25 a time. Now she can earn 1,000 times that amount.

Model-turned-DJ Sassy, who is featured in a provocative pose, complete with tattoo, is a 25-year-old south Londoner who attained star status when she joined hiphop megastar P Diddy on the decks at the Cafe de Paris. She has since played private DJ sets to the likes of Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Eminem.

Male DJs pictured include Roger Sanchez, Carl Cox, John Digweed and Rui da Silva, as well as Phats & Small, Tall Paul and Brandon Block.

The exhibition opens on 7 July and runs until 28 September, before going on a tour of bars and nightclubs around Britain.