Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
PAGE 18
HIS LIFE
My mom once showed me a pictorial from Playboy of Ursula Andress naked under a waterfall and said that is what a womans body should look like. And i Have to say my moms did. She ate health food and worked out religiously in the family room way before it was fashionable. Men would hound her on the street or at the small. She would laugh and think it was funny. Sexiness with humor : those things are normal for me. I took my very first photograph in Puerto Rico on vacation with my parents. My mother made a bikini out of a Fredericks of Hollywood bra top and gold belt buckles. We were in this brand-new 1970s hotel. She set up the shot. She put an astray on the carpet to mark the spot where i should stand. She posed ; I pushed the button. I still love that photo. I think i was around six or seven. Family photos were a huge production. My mom would direct the scenarios and meticulously style all the outfits. For my baby photographs, she posed me as en angel. She made paper angel wings really detailed ones with indivudual paper feathers. As i got older, the photo sessions got more ambitious. My mom would style outfits for the entire family so we looked like something
out of The Sound of Music. And we would go to old estates and country clubs around Connecticut posing with other peoples cars and sheep dogs. She has thousands of photos in albums, all of this and take one click of the camera and thay came out great. I think of all the film i go through and i feel a little amateurish by comparison. Then we moved to North Carolina. I twas a shock : subdivisions and fast-food places went up overnight. There were wild divorcees with bubble bouffants and long lashes. Nothing like Connecticut. One we were playing kickball in the apartment complex parking lot when this woman came downstairs with a giant hairdo, halter top, hot pants, cork platform wedgies, and started smashing her husbands new Lincoln with a hammer. We were mesmerized. Seeing her on all fours, screaming, crawling on that car and bashing it, with that outfit, that hair, those fingernails well, i twas a little bit of heaven. Ill never forget it. I love drama and outrageousness. I love crazy scenes. Always have. In North Carolin ait was harder for my mom to find all the beautiful places to shoot : its all about strip smalls there. No more ye olde New England backdrops ; she hated it. So she got more creative. She shot pictures of my brother and me that look like we are still in Connecticut at some Mystic Seaport setting with weathered planks, docks, and pllars. Actually, we were at a Long John Silvers, a fast food-fish restaurant, at the shopping center in the middle of a parking
lot, but because of the cropping, no one would ever know. We were a middle-class suburban family living in a hideous North Carolina apartment complex ; I was a pot-smoking teenage disaster. In the family albums we look like Vanderbilts. My mom remade her reality through snapshots. Maybe thats were i got the idea to make up fantasies in photographs. There were moments of fun, but for the most part i was tormented in school because i was freak. I would daydream all day about being in New York. I was sure that i would be a painter or an illustrator, but the moment i picked up a camera and found out that my friends would do anything to be in a photo, i knew what id spend my life doing. By the end of my first roll of film, all my misfit firends were naked in my room, posing like mad. I left home in 1978, when i was 15, and came to New York City. I lived at the 23rd Street YMCA, and then with a friend in the East Village. I tried to get a job at Fiorucci, but i was too young. I started workingas a busboy at studio 54. Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci clams on the halfshell and rollerskates that time had a big influence on my pictures. All that pop imagery. At studio, a moon would come down from the ceiling, with a spoon that went to its nose, and then it would start snowing. A giant heart plugged into a giant socket would swing fown on special nights and everyone seemed beautiful, and people got dressed up, and
STARS
PAMELA ANDERSON
MUSE/FRIEND
In the overheated world of show business, the words unique and genius are thrown around with such abandon that I usually skirt them acidulously. Yet when I try to explain or describe my dear friend Dave LaChapelle, such expressions are wholly unavoidable. He is a man of such extraordinary creative energy, such powerful vision and such artistic determination in the pursuit of beauty, humour, irony, relevance and just plain fun that I know of no equal. His work is always entertaining and inspiring and often provokes a real epiphany et je lui aime! Nous sommes bien sr des meilleurs copains mais de temps en temps cest vrais que nous faisons des sottises ensemble! Written for Photo, february 2009.
CHAD FARMER
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND PRESIDENT, LAMBESIS
The first time David and I worked together was in his studio in the village in NY about a decade ago. We were having coffee with Amanda Lapore and Richie Rich, while discussing iconic 70's french magazine covers, we hung out in a room of boob covered walls ...as well as many other rooms. ...and then the cops came running through the studio chasing somebody... needless to say, we hit it off instantly and have worked together on many projects ever since. Written for Photo, february 2009.
JAMI GLASSMAN
DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE SERVICES, LAMBESIS
David is one of the most inspiring, visionary artists of our time. He loves beauty in a way so different from the conventional standards; his work really makes you stop to think about the meaning of what you see and how you see it. And of course his studio is just like his photos crazy loud music blasting, murals on the walls, and people you love to hang out with.
GARRET SUHRIE
MANAGER, DAVID LACHAPELLE STUDIO (L.A.)
Throughout his exhaustive career, David LaChapelle has created more than just a name for himself, he's created a brand, a culture. While the world may think they know the LaChapelle style and aesthetic, he's constantly reinventing himself, as any true artist is, always evolving. He has pushed the limits of commentary using fashion and celebrity as his platform, and is now getting back to his roots, back to the galleries and museum. With his unbridled enthusiasm and uninhibited creativity, there are exciting times to come in LaChapelle Land! Written for Photo, february 2009.
JOHN SCHOENFELD
David is a very aware person constantly absorbing the details of life, digesting his experiences and pouring that unique perspective through his own creative lens. For me, its great to have the opportunity to participate and contribute to Davids creative process. I hope he has as much fun as I do. There is a tremendous amount of thought that David puts into his work prior to the shoot, but to me what is impressive is how he operates once he begins shooting. This is when he refines the idea, giving the work its dynamic layers. He is inspired and direct. Written for Photo, february 2009.
JEFFREY KEYTON
MTV NETWORKS
Few artist have inspired me the way David has. His unbridled creativity is contagious, his passion deep and wise. And I will never forget when he picked me up once when I was creatively down with the gift of his creative light, heart and soul. Written for Photo, february 2009.
JESUS
STEVEN PRANICA
INTERNATIONAL AGENT/MANAGER
Provocative, Controversial, Prolific, Seductive... these are a few of the words that define LaChapelle's artistic style and also my 14 year friendship and business relationship with David as his international agent. As one of contemporary art's foremost innovators, LaChapelle has continuously exhibited the rare ability to analyze, translate, and record all facets of pop culture. In encompassing a protean range of mediums; his visuals embrace the fantasy of indulgence and escape while satisfying the viewer's insatiable appetite for aesthetically significant work with intricately woven and ironic, yet incisive commentary reflecting the undertone of present day events. His relentless mappings of the cultural landscape at the heart of our society has generated a compelling anatomy of the pop culture psyche, allowing us to view our most pervasive cultural narratives with new clarity. Whether he is exploring magnetic icons of mainstream media or probing the subcultural margins, LaChapelle's contribution to the continuing dialogue of art has transcended and redefined the existing creative process for a new generation of artists; in turn elevating his legacy into a pop icon.
PATRICK TOOLAN
MANAGER, DAVID LACHAPELLE CREATIVE PLANNING
"The is a certain magic that surrounds a David LaChapelle photo shoot. As one can see from the final products, the fantastic scenes are alive during these shoots. David creates his fantasies and then he photographs them. One can really feel the beauty that is being made because everything the public sees in the print is truly happening right before your eyes."
ART
TONI SHAFRAZI
TONI SHAFRAZI GALLERY, NEW YORK
One late night many years ago, I think it was 93, I got a very excited phone call from Naomi Campbell, impatiently urging me to rush down to the studio of David LaChapelle, telling me that he was a great artist whose work I would absolutely love, and that I had to get down there immediately. So at Naomis urging I put on some clothes and went to the studio, where I found them in the middle of a big photo shootand walked right into the fantastic world of David LaChapelle. Even then at first sight, that world of almost guerrilla and somewhat subversive independent picture making felt familiar and close to me, as I had some small experience myself in making pictures back in 1974. As it turned out some years before, in the mid-80s when David was a young boy, he had often come to my gallery and loved the exhibitions, especially the art and sprit of Keith Haring, as well as Andy Warhol, whom he started to work with. Soon after my visit we began work together. What is most striking and clearly visible in Davids work is the tremendous level of ex-
citement of every picture. Its as if the models, whether movie stars or common people, characters and their environments are infused with hyper-excitement. It is also very apparent that he is a brilliant colorist which he uses freely to amplify his images. The model, the set, juxtaposition, the action, the humor and color are all pumped up, like in the best of pop music when everything is well orchestrated, all these elements working together are brought to a very high level, elevating the idea to a very high pitch until the picturelike great rock and rollsounds and looks out of this world. In his more recent work, like the Deluge and Awakened series, people are presented in some ghostly ephemeral place, in a moment of being awakened when one has a kind of epiphanykind of half way between heaven and hell. Apparently when Quentin Tarantino had to have his portrait done, he specifically asked David that he be submerged like in the Awakened series. It is amazing that such a great director with tremendous energy and creativity would request this particular image and experience, as if to be anointed, like a ritual that he wanted to be a part of. David has said in his interviews that, the tank of water was very much like a big baptismal. The experience was like being photographed like babies under water. The water was warmed and there was this idea of rebirth, of the tunnel
that we hear about when we die, walking towards the light. This submersion in the water in order to express this light, its like the submersion becomes a baptism, it becomes an anointing. Having for many years covered the whole world of pop culture, the world of design, fashion and consumerism, the obsession with beautyfamevanity and temptationcatastrophe and death, what his pictures convey is a tremendous sense of innocence. Theres always a kind of optimism, a complete lack of nihilismtheres no major sense of cynicism or bitterness. Instead his pictures represent an abundant feeling of enthusiasm. What always comes across is a most devoted love and passion for creativity and imaginative playfulness. New York, February 12th, 2009
MODE
VICTORIA FRAZIER
HBO NETWORKS
I love David LaChapelle! Entering the studio I just cant wait to see David. I cant wait to see what he will be wearing, what he will say, watch him dance, laugh and work. I feel like a child in his presence and always want more. And there always is more. You turn the corner and there is yet another unbelievable set that David created the night before that is so fabulous you think you are dreaming. Even the art director couldnt think this one up and we all begin to laugh really hard. And we all dance to the music. It is simply amazing and so much fun. I dont want the day to end but it does and David gives me a hug. I must go back for more because I feel so alive and so loved. Expressing oneself is an art. David is fearless with his expressions, his love and I can touch it it is all real. My favorite shoot is the fifteen foot tall silver sea serpent David had built and put in the ocean with our celeb riding it in the waves. They could have been electrocuted but nothing stops David from getting the shot! I love you David!
BERNIE HOGYA
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, LOWE NY
I once heard the expression that an idea is like a snowball passed among warm hands. Therefore, when you have a great idea, it is imperative that you do everything you can to make sure that it is executed as great as it can possibly be. To that aim, I have always believed that the best path to success is to hire the best talent in the world. It is why I find myself time and time again relying on Davids immense talents. The Got milk? celebrity milk mustache campaign was my idea. It was a big idea that over the years has not only successfully sold milk but remains one of the most popular, iconic print advertising campaigns in America. There are a lot of accomplished photographers who specialize in celebrity portraits. But there is only one David LaChapelle. He is an original. A visionary. A one-of-a-kind. Creative people tend to think of advertising as an art form, but it is mostly a commercial endeavor. It is a business. Theres a product to sell, a strategy to execute and a clients needs to satisfy. David does it all, and along the way manages to bring imagination, artistry and an incredible I dare you to turn the page appeal to everything he does. His pictures burn in your memory. They start where everything else stops. His eye candy art direction, vivid color vocabulary, keen design 9
sense and acute understanding of what makes something great are what separate him from every other photographer in the world. It is a great honor of mine to have worked with David LaChapelle, and I cant wait until our next project together.
INGRID BARAJAS
"More than a world of colors and fascinating addictive photography, David LaChapelle's work is inspiring to generations, proving that art is not just in all of us, but for all of us" "LaChapelle's photographs delight us with a colorful and insightful contemporary interpretation filled with pop art that seldom few ever accomplish given the sensitive and meaningful intelligence his artistical images entail."
VICTOR VELEZ
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, NYC
For most of my career, no one has been more of a driving force than David Lachapelle and to collaborate with him, for any artist, is a dream come true. It was certainly mine. To glimpse into the mind of this modern day genius is to find a world where the likes of Caravaggio and Vermeer collide to create a world beyond reality and beauty, where art meets modern culture. He will undoubtedly continue to influence all of us for many years to come. Thank you David for letting us experience the world through your incredible vision.
NORA SALVAGGIO
REMY COINTREAU
'David exceeded our expectations during the development of Remy Martin VSOP's first limited edition. Not only did he capture our brand's essence and energy with a stunning RBG image - he worked with us to ensure that the final limited edition bottle and gift box were gorgeous. David remained involved throughout the development process, regularly contributing his point of view and assisting us in making judgement calls. For example we experienced real challenges when adapting the original RBG image to create the bottle sleeve. It was impossible to reproduce the desired skin tones without affecting the blue hues in the surrounding foliage. When we approached David with this issue - he asked to see the prototypes. After studying these carefully, he explained that it was acceptable to have slight color variances so long as we delivered a truly beautiful bottle. Working with David is a pleasure; he is incredibly talented, original, inspired, exacting, committed, humble and hilarious.
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