Interview with David LaChapelle, the photographer to the stars
Visiting Chile as a guest of Canon's Zoom In Project , the author of some of the most memorable pop images of recent decades spoke exclusively to L'Officiel Chile about today's contemporary art, the healing power of nature and the Bible.
Surreal, provocqtive, colorful, unforgettable. Once you know the work of the American photographer David LaChapelle (1963), there is no going back: the aesthetics that characterizes his lens is already part of the collective photographic canon, with a career as prolific as it is popular.
After being discovered by Andy Warhol in 1982, the most important celebrities of the last decades have posed in his works, whether on magazine or album covers, music videos, movies or as part of their personal collections. Naomi Campell, Michael Jackson, Eminem, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Leondardo Di Caprio, Madonna, Britney Spears, Courtney Love, Tupac, Lady Gaga and, more recently, Kim Kardashian and Dua Lipa are just some of the stars who have faced his camera.
However, despite starting his fast-paced career cleaning tables at Studio 54 at just 15 years old, the principales that drive him are as simple as they are noble: being in nature, getting closer to God and being a shining light within an increasingly confusing, dark and intimidation art world.
Visiting Chile after being invited by Canon for a photography masterclass, L'Officiel spoke to with LaChapelle about his career, the current state of photography, and his secluded home in Maui, Hawaii.
L'OFFICIEL: Despite photographing the biggest stars of our time and putting them in these fantastical and surreal settings, you've always talked about making art accessible and understandable for larger audiences.
In that sense, what do you think about the current state of photography, where everyone thinks they are professional photographers just because we have better cameras on our phones?
That's the way things are... That's what's happening. I think it's very easy to fall into narcissism and extreme materialism with this self-obsession, and we have to be careful. Being balanced in our lives and learning that not all moments need to be photographed, that they can be enjoyed without being captured in an image.
I have always liked art that I can understand. Sometimes art that needs to be explained or you have to read about it to know what it means... It's not my thing. I like art that doesn't need an explanation. There is so much confusion, people are intimidated when they enter contemporary galleries and museums because the works of artists are incomprehensible.
I like people to understand what it is, and I also know that now, with the Internet and social networks, people's attention is much shorter, so I have to be very clear with what I say. With an image like LA SAGRADA FAMILIA I have to be very clear that it's not a joke, because people are quick to make judgments, the world moves very, very fast. And photography stops time, it's a frozen moment. And it slows it down a bit.
I want people to use my art as a form of escapism. There is so much confusion and darkness in the world that I don't want to add anything else. There is so much murder and death and bloodshed in movies and on television that there is an obsession with it. If art is a reflection of today's society, what does it say about us? I think that as artists we have the opportunity to create light in the dark. I want to come from a place of beauty, understanding, and connection.
Some images aim for the sublime, others are simply humorous. More simple. Each image has a different purpose. Sometimes I want to make a statement, do something very deep, other times something light, I just want to laugh.
L'OFFICIEL: In the same way, now everyone thinks they're a model. There was a period in your career when you stopped photographing celebrities, and some of your most recent work revolves around unknown characters or individuals.
What qualities do you look for in your models? What attracts you enough to say "I want to take a picture of this person"?
I am very attracted to photographing dancers, but every detail of the image is important. The casting, where they are sitting… all those pieces are very important, as much as the printing, the technical part, the set. It depends on what you are doing, on the concept of the photo.
For a long time I stopped photographing… well, for me, at least, it was a long time, two years that I stopped photographing celebrities, but then Lady Gaga became my friend, she came to Hawaii and said: “Please photograph me for Rolling Stone”. I told him “Okay”. She brought me back to the world.
I don't have to be one or the other, fine art or celebrity. I can be free, I can do both. And once I got back into that world I really enjoyed it, but I didn't say yes to everything. There was a time in my life where there was no balance, I was a workaholic. We had fun, but…because I never finished high school, I was always afraid that if I didn't have three magazine covers and a top 10 video on MTV…I was so anxious because I had nothing to fall back on if I failed. I dropped out of school at the age of 15.
My first subjects were the dancers. I met a group of dancers and my first thing was about these dancers in my little room, naked, but it wasn't erotic or sexual, it was very innocent. We were so young, I was 15 years old in that first photography course. Everyone doing these Renaissance poses, by Michael Angelo, I was obsessed with him (laughs). The dancers are the freest, they understand the body, the movement, they are very free with themselves, but sometimes you need certain faces... It depends on the casting. Sometimes it's just my friends who happen to be there, within reach, bringing them together and finding beauty everywhere.
When I was a kid in New York I prayed that one day I would have a cabin in the woods, because that is where I feel closest to God, that I would have enough money to pay for vegetarian food and that I would be able to make a living from photography.
I said "God, please...". And God listened. I have my cabin in the woods, I make a living from photography and I can afford to eat vegetarian food!
L'OFFICIEL: When you retired to Hawaii nearly 20 years ago, many people didn't believe you were capable of disappearing and letting go of stardom.
After the pandemic, when many of the things you said back then began to make sense to the rest of the people (issues such as overexposure, appearances, consumerism), did you feel that time had proved you right in a certain way?
When I went to Maui, I really thought it was over. It wasn't that I was exhausted, I just didn't think galleries would take me back. In my second year in Hawaii, 18 years ago, I got a call from a gallery and they said, "You can do whatever you want." And I was like, “Yeah! Oh my God, a gallery calling me!” Thus began a whole new chapter of my life.
I didn't realize how much it would inspire me to be in the rainforest , in nature, to put figures in it without it looking like something we've already seen many times before. That really inspired me and I didn't know it was going to happen. I was very quiet for a while and I still am, every time I go there I am really alone, I love solitude.
My prayers, when I was a kid in New York, at 17 years old, was that one day I would have a cabin in the woods, because that is where I feel closest to God, that I would have enough money to pay for vegetarian food and that I would be able to earn life with photography Those were my three sentences. I was there like, "God, please..." And God listened. He granted them to me, he answered me.
I have my cabin in the woods, I make a living from photography and I can afford to eat vegetarian food!
L'OFFICIEL: How has the pandemic affected you? How did you experience it creatively?
I used it as a time to get closer to God. I started reading the Bible a lot, something I had never done before. I have read passages from the Bible, I have been to churches, synagogues, listened to all kinds of ministers. I get something from all of them and some are better than others of course. But actually going to the book and reading the Bible is something completely new. I am discerning much better who I listen to, you have to be careful. There are many false prophets, who want money and are corrupt, like anywhere. But that was the most important thing.
I knew it, as soon as COVID started: "Okay, I'm not going to drink anything. Because if I start drinking wine in isolation, I know I'll end up in a corner of my house surrounded by bottles. A small sip now, but three months later... who knows". I used this time to reflect, to introspect. I was very lucky to have Hawaii, because of nature, but I also spent time in my backyard in Los Angeles. Nature is so healing... my mother always talked about it. that's where you find God.
