The Changing world

David LaChapelle realised from an early age that the world has changed through modernisation, media, and humans destroying the enviornment and eating away at nature. His 'American Trash Culture' picture were produced at a time when he went looking for nature (which he loved) and realised it was getting hard to find. He realised that even in the most corrupt and third world countries, nature was being replaced with commercial buildings and fast food joints. This caused him to look at these bright coloured, loud structures in a new light and find some thing he liked about them or could photograph. In his 2005 book LaChapelle Land, he states

' .... now I'm not bothered by looking at places like McDonald's. I see them I think, "Oh I could do a     photo here." They're colourful and bright....Truman Capote said "good taste is in the death of art." Fashion and advertising photography has always been about good taste, about picturing the good life. I want to see what's been cut out, I want to feature those things.... Photographers are always running away to exotic places to do fashion photography in nature, but they're always artificial-staged to look natural.... I'd rather celebrate the artificial' LaChapelle Land, p.149 

David LaChapelle, Death by Cheeseburger