Last week the world was black and white… this time it’s all about colors!
Welcome to the world of David LaChapelle: photographer, artist, visionary, creative, video and film director, celebrity among celebrities and so on.
David LaChapelle’s career started in the 1980s in New York City, when his work caught the attention of a certain Andy Warhol, who offered him a job as a photographer at “Interview Magazine.” And so, a star was born.
Since then, the colorful, sensual, fabulous and allegorical pictures by David Lachapelle have been on the cover of international magazines and books. They have been used for memorable advertising campaigns and exhibited in innumerable galleries and museums; he shot some of the most famous and iconic fashion and celebrity images, transposing on film some of the obsessions of the contemporary world.
Fifty-three of these photos are now on display in Lucca, at the Center of Contemporary Art, whose sparkling white walls and floors make the colors of the pictures look even brighter and more powerful. However, sometimes the color of the background is used to emphasize the message of the photographic series: blue-grey walls for the floating corpse of the Awakened series; pink rooms to introduce the sexual obsessions of the Excess series and the grotesque physical stereotypes portrayed in the Plastic People series.
David LaChapelle Abram, 2007 C-Print, 152,4 x 127 cm © David LaChapelle, Courtesy of Fred Torres Collaborations, New York
An intense journey, one series after another.
From Star System – voices, passions, obsession, follies, fixations and torments of the music, fashion and movie industry – to Deluge – a warning to our frivolous and consumerist society. From Destruction and Disaster – where beautiful models, with impeccable dresses and make-up, are photographed in catastrophic scenarios – to the oneiric world of Dreams. From Negative Currency – where Lachapelle use an experimental technique with dollar notes in place of the negative – to Earth Laughs in Flowers, one of his latest series – “classic” floral compositions corrupted by abandoned toys, bags, vegetables, mobile phones, plastic items.
Provocative. Ironic. Kitsch. Intense. Irreverent. Surreal. Pop. Lachapelle.
INFO
From June 29 to November 4, 2012
LU.C.C.A. – Lucca Center of Contemporary Art
Via della Fratta 36, Lucca
Tickets: 9 €, reduced 7 €
Opening hours: Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday 10am-7pm; Friday and Saturday 10am-midnight; closed Monday
