David LaChapelle

A statement from the artist:

" I am presenting a selection of works that best portray the consistent themes I have been exploring throughout my career - from some of my earliest works that were shown during the 1980's in New York galleries, on through the 15 years I spent while working for magazines.

Through this time my objective was to document America's obsessions and compulsions using publications as a means to reach the broadest possible audience. I was employing "pop" in the broadest sense of the word. I was photographing the most popular people in the world to the marginalized always attempting communicate to the public in an explicit and understandable way. The images were always meant to attract, not alienate. Inclusion has always been the goal when making these pictures, and continues on in the newest works that will be exhibited.

The difference between the works I did as a photographer for hire and the most recent is that I'm freed from the constraints of magazines. 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

David LaChapelle