PHOTO:David LaChapelle-Letter to the World

David LaChapelle, A New World, 2017, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print , 147,5 x 228,5 cm, Edition of 3 + 2 Aps, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon Over the past 30 years, David LaChapelle’s prolific body of work has expanded the genre of image-making and established the photographer as a fixture in contemporary art. Skilfully fusing art history with references to popular culture, metaphysical questions with street culture, David LaChapelle paints a disquieting portrait of 21st-century values and lifestyles. His portraits, stage and film works have become archetypes of America. Since 2006, he has been focusing on the artistic side of his work.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Templon Archive

David LaChapelle returns to Paris with “Letter to the World”, a large-scale exhibition designed for Galerie Templon’s. Conceived as a journey through LaChapelle’s imagination, the exhibition brings together iconic pieces and the photographer’s dramatic new work. For the very first time, LaChapelle is exhibiting a poetic assortment of photographs which he made from 1983 to 1989. Crafted using an analogue process whereby he painted on his own negatives, these early works demonstrate his artistic sensibilities and the appeal of nature already at play. The photographs are interwoven with LaChapelle’s newest works that use the same technique. The layout of the two levels of the gallery space is designed to create a dialogue between two contrasting worlds: from destruction to utopia, excess to redemption. On the lower level, a dynamic selection of iconic works illustrate LaChapelle’s vision of human civilization on the verge of collapse, faltering under the pressure of environmental dangers and the excesses of consumer culture and celebrity idolization. The virtuosic “Seismic Shift” (2012) as well as the defining “Death by Hamburger” (2001) and “Addicted to Diamonds” (1997) rub shoulders with remarkable portraits of Andy Warhol, David Bowie and Michael Jackson. These highlights, along with radical still lifes and industrial landscapes, raise political questions as well as exploring the role of the artist and the viewer, examining o/ur modern indulgence and desire for materialistic beauty and ever-lasting youth. On the upper level, the artist responds to this apocalyptic universe with a fantastical “New World”. Drawing on his admiration for the great masters of art, he develops a dream-like vision of a wild paradise. David LaChapelle moved to the jungles of Hawaii ten years ago. Inspired by his quest for spirituality and a more secluded life, his new works reveal a surprising aspect of his investigations. Drenched in an explosion of unusual, electric colors, his images are composed like collages. They bring to mind the experiments of early photography and evoke William Blake, Leonardo da Vinci and religious iconography.

Info: Galerie Templon, 28 rue du Grenier Saint-Lazare, Paris, Duration: 3/11-29/12/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.templon.com

David LaChapelle, Adam and Eve, 2017, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 147,5 x 228,5 cm, Edition of 3 + 2 Aps, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon
David LaChapelle, Adam and Eve, 2017, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 147,5 x 228,5 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon

 

 

David LaChapelle, The First Supper, 2017, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 147,5 x 228,5 cm, Edition of 3 + 2 Aps, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon
David LaChapelle, The First Supper, 2017, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 147,5 x 228,5 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon

 

 

David LaChapelle, Venus of Willendorf (Pink), 2016, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 147,5 x 228,5 cm, Edition of 3 + 2 Aps, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon
David LaChapelle, Venus of Willendorf (Pink), 2016, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 147,5 x 228,5 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon

 

 

David LaChapelle, House at the End of the World, 2005, Chromogenic print, face-mounted to Plexiglas, 67.3 × 101 cm, Edition of 3 + 2 Aps, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon
David LaChapelle, House at the End of the World, 2005, Chromogenic print, face-mounted to Plexiglas, 67.3 × 101 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon

 

 

David LaChapelle, Death by Hamburger, 2001, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 147,5 x 228,5 cm, Edition of 3 + 2 Aps, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon
David LaChapelle, Death by Hamburger, 2001, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 147,5 x 228,5 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon

 

 

Left: David LaChapelle, Behold, 2015, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 152 x 121 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon. Right: David LaChapelle, Amanda Lepore: Addicted to Diamonds, 1997, Chromogenic print mounted to Dibond 61 x 44,2 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon
Left: David LaChapelle, Behold, 2015, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 152 x 121 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon. Right: David LaChapelle, Amanda Lepore: Addicted to Diamonds, 1997, Chromogenic print mounted to Dibond 61 x 44,2 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon

 

 

Left: David LaChapelle, State of Consciousness, 2018, Pigment print and dibond, 101,5 x 67 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 APs, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon. Right: David LaChapelle, State of Consciousness, 2018, Chromogenic print mounted to Dibond 61 x 44,2 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon
Left: David LaChapelle, State of Consciousness, 2018, Pigment print and dibond, 101,5 x 67 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 APs, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon. Right: David LaChapelle, State of Consciousness, 2018, Chromogenic print mounted to Dibond 61 x 44,2 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon

 

 

Left: David LaChapelle, Songs of Myself, 2017, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 152 x 121 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon. Right: David LaChapelle, Rebirth of Venus, 2009, Chromogenic print mounted to Dibond 61 x 44,2 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon
Left: David LaChapelle, Songs of Myself, 2017, Hand Painted Negative-Pigment Print, 152 x 121 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon. Right: David LaChapelle, Rebirth of Venus, 2009, Chromogenic print mounted to Dibond 61 x 44,2 cm, © David LaChapelle, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Templon