After icons, the deluge
INTERVIEW. This week, David LaChapelle - video and filmmaker, iconographer and perhaps the most famous photographer of his generation - is in town to promote “Heaven to Hell,” the third book in a trilogy that he says will most likely mark the end of his celebrity portraiture. And this Saturday, an exhibit of new work will open at the Tony Shafrazi gallery.
Some of the images in “Heaven to Hell” seem connected by narrative threads. For example, inflatable cheeseburgers, raw meat and fire recur.
It happens pretty organically. These images all came from one source; they’re not done by committee. You do get recurring themes that make a loose narrative. This book is the end of a trilogy. It really feels like the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new chapter. I don’t have that much more to say about celebrity and pop culture. I think I’ve exhausted that medium. I don’t want to be in the celebrity service industry anymore. When you see images in a gallery, you have a certain way of seeing. You expect layers and depth. There is a subtext in my work for magazines, which is why they do work in galleries. It’s about consumption gone wrong, porn, fast food, fast sex. There is a dark side to beauty. I see it.
I particularly like the images of Amanda Lepore emulating Andy Warhol’s portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.
Thank you. That had always been one of my favorite images, but I couldn’t afford to buy it, and I didn’t want a print. Marilyn was all about image and Andy claimed to be all about image. Amanda and I were hanging out awhile back, and decided to reproduce it. It was an homage.
Your film “Rize” did well last year. Will you make any more movies?
I don’t buy into the common idea that you have to make films to be relevant. I don’t really believe that film is the holy grail of art. I’ve always done what I want, whether it was dropping out of high school, or moving to New York at 15. People do change and hopefully mature. Back in the early ’80s, I did a lot of gallery shows in New York City, then I started working at Interview. It’s been this crazy 20 years. My work for galleries and museums will still probably wind up in magazines, just as my work for magazines wound up in galleries and museums. But now I can spend eight weeks on one photo shoot if I want.
Source:http://ny.metro.us/metro/entertainment/article/After_icons_the_deluge/7087.html
Some of the images in “Heaven to Hell” seem connected by narrative threads. For example, inflatable cheeseburgers, raw meat and fire recur.
It happens pretty organically. These images all came from one source; they’re not done by committee. You do get recurring themes that make a loose narrative. This book is the end of a trilogy. It really feels like the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new chapter. I don’t have that much more to say about celebrity and pop culture. I think I’ve exhausted that medium. I don’t want to be in the celebrity service industry anymore. When you see images in a gallery, you have a certain way of seeing. You expect layers and depth. There is a subtext in my work for magazines, which is why they do work in galleries. It’s about consumption gone wrong, porn, fast food, fast sex. There is a dark side to beauty. I see it.
I particularly like the images of Amanda Lepore emulating Andy Warhol’s portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.
Thank you. That had always been one of my favorite images, but I couldn’t afford to buy it, and I didn’t want a print. Marilyn was all about image and Andy claimed to be all about image. Amanda and I were hanging out awhile back, and decided to reproduce it. It was an homage.
Your film “Rize” did well last year. Will you make any more movies?
I don’t buy into the common idea that you have to make films to be relevant. I don’t really believe that film is the holy grail of art. I’ve always done what I want, whether it was dropping out of high school, or moving to New York at 15. People do change and hopefully mature. Back in the early ’80s, I did a lot of gallery shows in New York City, then I started working at Interview. It’s been this crazy 20 years. My work for galleries and museums will still probably wind up in magazines, just as my work for magazines wound up in galleries and museums. But now I can spend eight weeks on one photo shoot if I want.
Source:http://ny.metro.us/metro/entertainment/article/After_icons_the_deluge/7087.html