New David LaChapelle books "rescue the teachings of Christ"

BOOKS

New David LaChapelle books

"Rescue the teachings of Christ"

September 2024

Holy Wars Lies — For No War Could Be Holy, 2008 Hollywood

©David LaChapelle, TASCHEN

The Cologne-based art book publisher TASCHEN has published two new illustrated books by the American photographer and director David La Chapelle. The publisher describes the co-operation as a long-term project that is now complete. Good News and Lost + Found complete the five-volume David La Chapelle anthology.

Artist David La Chapelle, also known as the ‘Fellini of photography’, has his very own cosmos of religion, dazzling phantasms and pop culture. Richard Avedon said of his colleague: ‘Of all the photographers who create surreal visual worlds, it is LaChapelle who has the potential to become the next Magritte.’ LaChapelle is Catholic and often uses religious symbolism in his works.

Fly on My Sweet Angel Fly on to the Sky, 1988 Farmington, Connecticut

©David LaChapelle, TASCHEN

Sister Moon, 2019

©David LaChapelle, TASCHEN

LaChapelle has his very own highly artificial aesthetic, but he devotes himself to relevant socio-critical themes such as consumerism and body fetishism, gender issues and spirituality. Above all, however, many of his works demonstrate his deep Catholic faith. The works initially appear provocative, but on closer inspection they deal with the subject of faith in a respectful manner.

And so the volume ‘Good News’ is all about the sacred. The book shows LaChapelle's very early photographs of naked angels and lovers from New York in the 1980s. But also more recent images of LaChapelle's home in Hawaii, which he transforms into a Garden of Eden.

Good News features: Pamela Anderson, Lana Del Rey, Sharon Gault, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Paris Jackson, David LaChapelle, Amanda Lepore, Miriam Makeba, Sergei Polunin, Tupac Shakur, Elizabeth Taylor and many others

His mother is said to have influenced his artistic direction

LaChapelle was born in Connecticut and grew up there with his two siblings. The family moved to North Carolina, but later returned to Connecticut. LaChapelle is said to have been the victim of bullying at a young age because of his sexuality. He moved away from home to the big city at the age of 15. According to sources, he became a busboy at Studio 54 in New York City. The right place for his inspiration. However, he would later return to North Carolina to study art at the School of the Arts. His first photo showed his mother Helga, who, as LaChapelle writes, is said to have influenced his artistic direction. At the age of 17, he had a fateful encounter with Andy Warhol, who hired him as a photographer for an interview. (Source Wikipedia) Warhol is said to have said: ‘Do what you want. Just make sure everyone looks good.’ LaChapelle's images later appeared on the covers of and in magazines such as Details, GQ, i-D, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Face, Vanity Fair, Vogue Italia and Vogue Paris.

The Last Supper

"Rescue the teachings of Christ"

A significant work is ‘The Last Supper’, as part of ‘Jesus is My Homeboy’, a series of six photographs by David LaChapelle depicting scenes from the life of Jesus Christ. Commenting on this beautifully moving series, LaChapelle said he wanted to ‘save the teachings of Christ from the fundamentalists who tend to use his words to persecute and condemn others instead of showing love.’

If you are an absolute LaChapelle fan, there is the ‘David LaChapelle. Lost and Found. Good News. Art Edition’, where you can expand your private art collection with genuine David LaChapelle prints. Not just one signed print, but three characterise the ‘Art Edition’ issue.

-------

TASCHEN

David LaChapelle. Lost + Found

Hardcover, 24.6 x 31.4 cm, 1.68 kg, 286 pages

Euro 40

taschen.com