A look at LaChapelle the fine artist

David Lachapelle was confined to the restrictions of the magazines he worked for and the commissions he was given, for over 15 years of his 20 year career so far. However, in more recent times he has returned to his initial practice of exhibiting in some of the biggest galleries in the world. To my surprise, the powerful advertisement campaigns, branding and commercial work he had been doing for so long, transform outstandingly into powerful fine art photography and prints with hidden meanings and powerful messages.

LaChapelle uses the re-occurring themes that we have seen in his work since the beginning of his career and has revealed an ability to create and communicate exceptionally within the fine art world. His work confronts American and global obsessions and compulsions and explores environmental topics, poverty, religion, gluttony, vanity and gender as we have already discussed. He creates these images to try and understand common beliefs and stereotypes and he uses the most popular people in the world to attract the widest audience. 

'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. I feel that we are living in a very precarious time, with environmental devastation, economic instability, religious wars waged, and excessive consumption amidst extreme poverty. I have always used photography as a means to try to understand the world and the paradox that is my life. There is the feeling that we are living at a precipice. My hope is that through the narratives told in my images, I will engage people and connect with them addressing the same ideas or questions that possibly challenge them. My latest pictures are a reflection of my earliest pictures. I reintroduce my personal ideas of transfiguration, regaining paradise, and the notion of life after death.' David LaChapelle Biography