Bella1: David LaChapelle

"This time my objective was to document America's obsessions and compulsions using publications as a means to reach the broadest possible audience. I was employing "pop" in the broadest sense of the word. I was photographing the most popular people in the world to the marginalized always attempting to communicate to the public in an explicit and understandable way. The images were always meant to attract, not alienate. Inclusion has always been the goal when making these pictures, and continues on in the newest works that will be exhibited."
"The difference between the works I did as a photographer for hire and the most recent is that I'm freed from the constraints of magazines. The work has not only been liberated from the limitations of glossy pages, but has also emerged from the white frame, engaging the viewer with the exploration of three-dimensional tableaux."
"Working at Interview Magazine, LaChapelle quickly began photographing some of the most famous faces of the times. Before long, he was shooting for the top editorial publications of the world, and creating the most memorable advertising campaigns of a generation. His striking images have appeared on and in between the covers of magazines such as Italian Vogue, French Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone and i-D. In his twenty-year career in publishing, he has photographed personalities as diverse as Tupac Shakur, Madonna, Amanda Lepore, Eminem, Philip Johnson, Lance Armstrong, Pamela Anderson, Lil' Kim, Uma Thurman, Elizabeth Taylor, David Beckham, Paris Hilton, Jeff Koons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hillary
Clinton, Muhammad Ali, and Britney Spears, to name just a small selection."
"After establishing himself as a fixture amongst contemporary photography, LaChapelle expanded his work to include direction of music videos, live theatrical events, and documentary film. His directing credits include music videos for artists such as Christina Aguilera, Moby, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, The Vines and No Doubt."
"David LaChapelle is known internationally and in Israel as a photographer, a director of documentaries, and a video artist whose colorful, smooth and extroverted style is filled with sensuality, fantasy, and dark adventure, packed with accessible popular images, and communicates with a wide and variegated audience. His images have appeared on the covers of scores of leading fashion and entertainment magazines, and LaChapelle himself has played a pivotal role in the promotion of prestigious brands, such as Diesel, Nokia, Tommy Hilfiger, etc. He has photographed hundreds of celebrities, always depicted provocatively, usually in full or partial nudity."
"LaChapelle does not sanctify the erotic facet in order to satisfy the voyeuristic urge or the curiosity of an audience of viewers and fans; he prefers to celebrate the freedom to use it precisely in order to liberate the representation of the body, primarily the female body, from the pornographic context, from erroneous interpretation, and from the inevitable association of nakedness with sin, or the mechanical association of passion and lust with sexual gratification, abuse, and humiliation.To some extent, LaChapelle is considered an outsider in the art world and in the world of commercial photography alike. He tends to add subversive ideas and unusual aspects to the marketed product. In an advertising campaign for coffee, for example, he chose to emphasize the fact that it is a stimulant, and alluded to the fetishistic dimension inherent in the coffee ritual, complete with the pompous jargon associated with it, which he compared to the pompous ritualism of sadomasochistic rituals."
"His ability to create scenes of extreme reality using rich and vibrant colors makes his work instantly recognizable and often imitated. He continues to be inspired by everything from art history to street culture, creating both a record and mirror of all facets of popular culture today."
"LaChapelle grew up in an artistic setting which fully exploited the freedom of visual expression and the breaching of the boundaries of morality and censorship. At the same time, his approach does not quarrel with the numbness to which the liberty of the image has led. Instead it turns to the freedom of metaphor. LaChapelle strives to return the audience, the individuals in society, from their status as signifiers or as elements in the semiotic discourse, to their human existence, as active partners in the discourse, rather than the subjects discussed in it."LaChapelle combines religious narratives in his work, which, throughout history, have been introduced into art by the church and were intended to preach and glorify its power. Devout Christianity used Christ to foster propaganda, and God—to provide an excuse for killing and wars under the guise of reward and punishment. LaChapelle opts for the tolerant facet of religion, focusing on sermons which preach for love, forgiveness, and acceptance of the other. Via re-makes of original works he produces a fresh statement of his own. A blend of kitsch with porn chic, incorporating Hollywood and the New Testament in a single frame, and combining comics with Baroque and dark perversions with a soft and vulnerable human nature." Reference: David LaChapelle Bio [Internet] Available from: http://www.davidlachapelle.com/about/ [Accessed 3rd March 2011].

"David LaChapelle is a surrealist Photographer born in March 11th 1963, David aims to capture fashion, advertising and fine art photography he often uses fairly sexualized images,
LaChapelle studied at the "North Carolina School of the Arts and School of Visual Arts in New York City". His first photograph was of his mother, Helga LaChapelle, on a family vacation in Puerto Rico.
Andy Warhol offered him his first professional job as a photographer for Interview after meeting him at Studio 54 where LaChapelle was working at the time.^[ He has also worked for Rolling Stone, Vogue, GQ, Photo and Vanity Fair throughout the years." Reference: David LaChapelle (2011) [Internet] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_LaChapelle [Accessed 25th February 2011].