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For decades, LaChapelle worked with Interview Magazine, Vanity Fair, Italian Vogue, and Rolling Stone. He explained his shift in career and style saying, “Hardly anyone collected color photography at the time and that’s what I was making, saturated color prints. I realized that I might be burning a bridge with the galleries by working for magazines, but it’s been said, “sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge”.”
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In ‘Deluge’, 2007 he return to his artist roots, exploring the concept of great disruption. LaChapelle shares how great disruptions can feel like the end of the world- yet, the world still goes on. He takes the classical styles of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel or Karl Bryullov’s ‘The Last Day of Pompeii’ and combines them with tragedy and pop culture references.
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Exhibition history:
“Bad Planet”, Gary Tatintsian Gallery: Apr - May ‘08
David LaChapelle, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Sep’07–Jan’08
Exhibition Catalogue: Milan, Palazzo Reale, David LaChapelle, 2007-08, pp.103-123, no. 1, another example illustrated in colour
David LaChapelle, Forte Belvedere Museum, Florence, Jul-Oct’08
American Jesus, Installation Shot; Sebastian Guinness Gallery, 2009.
David LaChapelle: Postmodern Pop Photography, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Jul–Nov’10
“David LaChapelle”, Rize Gallery, Amsterdam, 04-20 Feb’11
Jablonka Galerie, Berlin, Mar-May’11
Lost and Found, Galeria Mesta, Bratislava, Sep–Oct’11
David LaChapelle "Cathedral", Michael Schultz Gallery, Berlin: 27.04.2011–24.05.2011
Nosotros La Humanidad Al BordeSan Juan, Museo Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico, Oct’11–Mar’12
Hangaram Design Museum, Seoul, Nov’11–Mar’12
David LaChapelle, Busan, Bexco Art Center, 2012
Burning Beauty, Stockholm, Fotigrafiska Museet, 2012
Thus Spoke LaChapelle, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Dec’11–Feb’12
Postmodernity. Espacio De Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo, Uruguay. 9 Jun – 26 Aug, 2016
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Bibliography:
David LaChapelle, Florence: Giunti, 2007, pl. 1, pp.122–23
Online Catalogue, Kunstier Gallery, Mar-May’11
Online Catalogue David LaChapelle 'Cathedral'. Apr 27 - May 24, 2011.