This is the second David LaChapelle post for this semester. I already planned on doing one on David and wanted to share other work by him so I went for it. LaChapelle began to make share his photography with the world in the mid-1980's. I know LaChapelle as the photographer to the stars. He has photographed an endless list of celebrities over the past few decades. He even did a Kardashian Christmas photo a few years ago...seriously. Along with his photography, he has also directed quite a few music videos. The link below will direct you to the Elton John video for This Train Don't Stop There Anymore, starring Justin Timberlake.
http://www.lachapellestudio.com/film/music/elton-john-featuring-justin-timberlake/
David's main talent, more me, is his staging of his sets and subjects. It isn't uncommon for him to rent out massive warehouses to setup a single image. He has also built sets that include over 80 people and multiple cameras to capture a single image. There isn't a centimeter of his image that he did not okay. Along with his amazing scenes, his use of lighting and color is very recognizable.
I'm drawn to David's work because of his use of color. The majority of his work includes incredibility vivid portraits. I also love his use of lighting. He doesn't treat every image the same for treatment of light and it is clearly noticeable. He also has a lot of humor behind most of his images. He maybe photographing A-list celebrities but he photographs them in ways we haven't seen before. As for his videos, I didn't know about his video work when I found his photography. I knew about a lot of the music videos but didn't know he did them. I absolutely love the video that I linked earlier in this post.
That first photography caught me so off guard. Im still giggling. Great humor in these photographs. His use of color is very strong and his subject matter? Not sure if that is the word to be used. But I love the last picture with the miniature set and the woman poking through the wall. The reversal of the stereotype roles are very interesting. Love seeing them taken on. Or like the obsession behavior woman can possess towards men. It could go almost either way.
ReplyDeleteThese are great! The middle image, in particular, is an amazing example of tableau (just like we read about!). It's such a baroque image in its lighting and content (which I love about it), and I could spend hours just poring over all the details he includes. Thanks for sharing!
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