Well, let's just say, firstly as you know my exams are starting tomorrow till November 10th which is kind of crap and sad, which means my blogging will be even more neglected, besides the point, let me bring you
DAVID LACHAPELLE ( his website
here )
and HE IS COMING TO AUSTRALIA!!! that's not it.
HE WANTS TO PHOTOGRAPH YOU!!Don't know who he is? Chances are, you already do. You would have seen lots of his work before but you just didn't notice his name.
He has photographed personalities including Andy Warhol, Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, P!nk, Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kanye West, Britney Spear, Paris Hilton, David Beckham, Angelina Jolie, Pamela Anderson and these are just some of the names.
The other day, when seeing my fellow bloggers on twitter, receiving David LaChapelle's Heaven to Hell book, I was instantly intrigued. I thought I had missed out, but then finding out I had a package at my post office the next morning from the guys from One Green Bean was great! The package was heavy and I didn't have a knowledge of how big the book was before, but when carrying it to the car, oh it was heavy. The first thing I thought was that this is some big huge bible. ( bible's were the thing I thought was heaviest when I carried at school, so I made that direct link).
A bible it was! 320 pages of it. It read -
Heaven To Hell. The cover, is a version of probably one of the world's most famous sculpture and religious subject - "
The Pieta" by Michelangelo. It depicts the Virgin Mary carrying his dead son, Jesus ( and you and me know that Courtney Love, who is on the cover in Mary's position is no innocent virgin). "The Pieta" was already questioned by the church in the 15th century, as Mary was too young looking, etc ..lots of other factors - (just to say that the work was already a little controversial to start with) and of course LaChapelle took this famous composition and subject and maximized it to the max. The controversy already starts here on the cover!
When I opened the book, I was instantly splashed with warm, explosive, dramatic colours that seemed to consume your idea of colour in this world. It all seems unrealistic. (I mean yes it's not but I'm saying how the images look like some kind of cartoon nearly. Hard to explain but I hope you get me?) His work seems saturated in colour and some work, you could see as a painting but then the subject matter in which is photographed seems to contradict anything that would've been painted. Like the Jesus picture below, the clothes and his hair, the setting seems perfect as a painting, then you see this half naked model-esque washing his feet and modern kitchen, which straight makes you feel different. His work has been described as controversial ( and yes it is! I would say definitely challenging some religious boundaries, Christians indeed) and thought provoking.
He references a diverse range of sources such as Renaissance art, the Bible, pop culture, Pornography (you can see a lot of that! haha)
A dream would to be work with/for him some day, I think the experience would be priceless. He incorporates all things I love, including - art, fashion, conceptual-ism, controversy, colour and drama!
