"we’ve progressed so far with what we can accomplish, but we still haven’t grown morally or spiritually since ancient times.
"mothers are hiding their children if they see a nipple. This is insanity...
It’s twisted and backwards and perverted."
"Images have impact. And I have to believe that otherwise why would I make them?"
"I don’t want to tell people what to call my work really, or what to think of it.
I don’t think of it as political."
Special thanks to Shanghai Plaza66 for hosting this interview during its recent re-launch.
As a creative, everyone deals with a slump once in awhile, even doubt. How do you combat those times and find inspiration again?
It’s a flow of tides, we all go through that; I spend a lot of time alone. Solitude is key. Wherever I am, I go and find nature to spend time alone, but you don’t have to do that. But for me that's when I can really recharge, get inspired and meditate. Then I get filled with ideas again.
Any advice for aspiring fashion photographers?
Make sure you really love fashion. That you love clothes, and hair, and make-up. Because you have to love all of it, not just surface things. Some people come into the studio and I’ll ask, “Why do you want to be a fashion photographer?” And they’ll say “I want to meet girls.” Well, I don’t know if that’s the right reason, but you have to really love fashion. There’s so many people who have that love, and the right talent. So if you don’t have that or drive, you’ll find it’s not going to be the best choice and you won’t get recognition.
Interview Magazine seems to be a breakthrough moment for you, can you tell us a bit about what that was like?
Well, I was showing in galleries prior to that in New York, which led to my work with Interview. It was the most important cultural magazine in the world at that time; it’s actually hard to believe that there was one, but there was, and it was Andy Warhol’s Interview. I worked there from 1984-1987, and took the last portrait of Andy before he died. It was interesting times, there were lots of artists around in the East Village where I lived — Basquiat, Haring and Cindy Sherman were there, it was really, really great.
Did that neighborhood and those artists have an influence on you?
An art explosion sort of happened there, as they do in all art history. You can see there’s these moments in time like Paris in the ‘30s with Matisse and Picasso and Man Ray. So similar to that, there was an art explosion happening at that time in the East Village, which attracted all these young artists, and really created a certain aesthetic. Those were some really formative years, which had a lot of influence on me.
Your work’s known to be very political, did that come naturally for you considering some of your own personal experiences and confrontations about sexuality?
I don’t want to tell people what to call my work really, or what to think of it. I don’t think of it as political. I think of it more as social commentary or sometimes it’s just humorous photographs, or escapist. Other times I’m photographing celebrities and that’s a whole different thing, I really like the variety.
Unlike a lot of photographers who stick to their niche, why is it that you’ve jumped around quite a bit between art, editorial and commercial?
All these styles have taught me a lot about photography and it’s all been a learning thing for me. Shooting weddings taught me how to work under pressure. Shooting for a travel magazine taught me how to work on location if it’s raining or shining, and how to find the best angles really quickly. It all made me a better photographer in the end.
Why did you get into commercial work anyway? Was that the plan, or was it something to help support your personal work?
I look at it this way: I have a lot of friends who are artists and they struggle with grants. The grants have really disappeared, there were a lot more grants in the ‘80s. So it’s necessary to take on commercial work. But I enjoy it, it keeps me involved in the world so I’m not just isolated in the art world, stuck in a small microcosm that is the fashion world or whatever. I want to be, just in the world. When I get to photograph the people who make up our time to me, it keeps me involved and it feeds me creatively.
So I really enjoy doing commercial work. It also means I can write myself a grant, like when I did the film Rize. That cost a million dollars and I got to pay for that myself, which meant I was in creative control. Many people wanted to produce that film, but they also wanted control of the edit, and I wouldn’t give that up. So I had the freedom that money could buy. That’s when you can really create because you don’t have to worry.
How do you feel about the way mobile phones have affected photography?
Well it hasn’t really affected me, because what I’ve always done has been very composed and very conceptual. My work really relies on sketching it out first. I think for photographers who are doing snapshot photography, mobile photography has definitely lessened the impact of their work. It hasn’t done that with me though, because I’m so hands on with my art direction, and every detail. I create these conceptual compositions, to tell a story that is highly thought about.
And Instagram? Do you find it productive for photographers?
I’m not on any social media, but I find Instagram helps. Some of my interns will come up and say “look at this amazing girl” and that’s how we recently shot this girl from London with a beautiful face that was also so strange, but just so beautiful. So I shot her for my next book. I’m usually very careful with the casting, though.
You’re not on social media, why is that?
Well, my studio will post things on my Facebook when I have a show, but they do it as a third party. They don’t pretend to be me. I like to have days where I’m not working to be totally unplanned, and social media just adds to the amount of stuff we have to do. I find we’re all a lot busier these days, but we’re not getting more done. And I think that all this social media is just a lot of busy-ness without doing more.
What do you want people to take away from your references to Renaissance art?
I want to breathe some light into these antiquities. Say with Venus and Mars in “The Rape of Africa,” you have this composition that’s totally the same but creates a totally different meaning. You’ve got Mars, goddess of war and Venus, goddess of beauty. War and greed vs. beauty and love are still themes we’re dealing with today. We’ve come so far with technology, we’ve progressed so far with what we can accomplish, but we still haven’t grown morally or spiritually since ancient times. We still deal with things like war and greed. That’s why they’re still relevant and I want to breathe life into that.
How do you feel about the direction of fashion photography now?
I don’t know, I don’t see too many things that strike me so much. I find I look back to art history a lot more now, at people who are timeless. Whereas people in fashion are very caught up in what’s popular at this moment — the model of the moment, the dress of the moment. It becomes very transitory. It tries so hard to be ahead of the curve, and that’s really different than my approach. I just put out what’s in my head, and what matters to me right now.
How are your commercial work and personal work different?
I think a lot of people can be followers, then there are people like Lorenzo at Diesel who are visionaries. He allows artists to really do what they want to do. Not every campaign he’s done is visionary, but the ones we have worked on, he’s certainly allowed me to have so much freedom. He trusts me, and when you have a singular voice at work over an entire committee, you get a much stronger statement in the final product.
When you have so many people working on something, I find it doesn’t come out as strong because you’re getting so many different opinions, and have to make room for a lot of compromise.
What’s your approach to personal work?
Right now, with my fine artwork and my books, I’m not
following the trends of what’s happening in contemporary art.
In contemporary art we’re dealing with a lot of abstract expressionism. I don’t do that, I do figurative work. Which generally doesn’t sell but I don’t care. I’m making work to believe in.
I think it’s very important to show the figure right now and nature, and reclaim it from pornography and commodification, because it’s okay to show horror movies and video games or TV shows with torture, but then mothers are hiding their children if they see a nipple. This is insanity, and it’s like we’re living in the dark ages. It’s twisted and backwards and perverted. The nude figure is not something to be ashamed of. Like Michelangelo said, the proof that God exists is in the beauty of man and nature — I really believe that.
Your work for Diesel has been pretty groundbreaking, especially your photo of the two sailors kissing in 1995. What was it like shooting one of the most controversial ads at the time?
It was the first time two people of the same sex were shown kissing in a major advertisement, which I didn’t know at the time. And it caused a lot of impact, it was in 76 countries… it really was one of those moments where art and commerce came together to create this hybrid of something that’s very, very real. Even though it’s for a denim company, it transcended advertising to become something bigger.
When you have an image all over cities all over the world, kids see it as something else. They’ll see that the people in them are open minded, they’re having fun, they’re beautiful. Whatever shape and size they are. And if someone's on a borderline, being told by their parents or their religion to be something they aren't, they’d see these pictures and maybe that’d be the thing that makes them think “maybe there’s something else out there for me.” Because images have impact. And I have to believe that otherwise why would I make them?
In his teens, the artist threw himself into the creative microcosm that was NYC in the ‘80s, working as a busboy for the legendary Studio 54. He soon after took a break from the city to go back to school, only to find himself a few credits short of graduating. Eventually LaChapelle returned to New York to show his work in galleries. It didn’t take long before his experimental style of portraiture with metaphysical undertones was noticed, and he was picked up by Andy Warhol for Interview Magazine. It was there LaChapelle began shooting high-profile celebrities, including Warhol’s final portrait before his untimely passing.
With a monumental start and an aesthetic with mass appeal, the photographer was led deeper into the worlds of editorial and commercial photography where it was not uncommon for his work to blur the lines into art. Themes of antiquity, salvation and empowerment became common in his compositions, at times determining the talent he would shoot. With this formula in mind, LaChapelle hasn’t shied from constructing controversial images including one portraying Courtney Love as Michelangelo's Virgin Mary from The Pietà, holding a dying Kurt Cobain lookalike.
Below, we asked the legendary photographer to talk about his styles, controversial works, and his thoughts on how smart phones have affected the industry.
As someone who fled North Carolina for
New York at a young age, photographer
David LaChapelle has led an eventful career
full of glamour, beauty, struggle and celebrity — rightfully earning him his reputation as the “Fellini of the photography world.” He’s photographed some of the most recognizable faces in pop culture including Tupac Shakur,
Lil’ Kim, Kanye West, Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeff Koons, David Beckham and Muhammad Ali.
