EXCLUSIVE DAVID LACHAPELLE : MACS IN CYBERSEX

Many modern creative minds enrich their artistic concepts by infusing technology into their work. This process allows them to transcend the limits of nature through the help of technology. The Macintosh system has prevailed as a key figure in fields such as fashion design and photography ever since its introduction to the creative world.

Meet David LaChapelle - A photographer who creates his own visionary world rather than simply reproducing the visible one.

David explains how he draws from the realities of the world around us and accentuates them into his own unique vision. In this exclusive interview, MacDirectory discovers the extent of David's involvement with technology and the Macintosh system in his work.

Mac Directory: How did you get into photography?
David: When I was a little kid I was always painting and drawing and I always loved photography. I came to New York when I was fifteen, and I started taking pictures when I was in high school.

MD: Coming from where?
David: I was from North Carolina. I started photographing high school friends, I guess they were about 15/16 years old. I did nudes of them, crazy pictures, and then I came to New York. I just started searching for jobs. I never went to college and I didn't even finish high school.

MD: Most parents would not approve of this. Did you get support from your family?
David: My family comes from a sensitive background and my mother is very artistic, and so is my father. My parents didn't really push me into anything. They were really supportive of anything I decided to do.

MD: What influenced your work? Is there a person?
David: People that inspired me, like Andy Warhol, showed that anything is possible. I love the idea of just radical fantasy ideas. Anything can happen.

MD: Would you describe your work as "radical Fantasies?" Your work is very complex, very dramatic.
David: Yeah, totally, I make my pictures for peoples, but I make them to turn myself on. I just try to think what would be the most exciting thing for me to see? I want people to react, to laugh and to escape for a few minutes looking at them. Nobody wants to just keep it to themselves. It's about sharing, I am taking an image further for myself and then giving it to others.

MD: So How, does your creative process work?
David: Imagine you say " I want you to shoot Madonna" I will have a couple of ideas for that...If it's a celebrity I'll think about who they are, and I'm going to take that photograph that's going to sum up their whole career and life. It is what they stand for, so in 100 years if they have to pick one photo to show here's who that person was...that's my idea, I like to do that.

MD: So did you have fun working with Madonna? The "Purple Dragon, Fireball and Madonna" picture (right) looks computer generated, was it?
David: No, I'll show you the photo, I'll show you the set that we created. The fire was from a girl that blows fire. Now this is where it gets tricky. Madonna didn't want to get near fire, however I wanted to get it into one shot. She said "Nobody is going to be breathing free on me" So I had to shoot that separately, but it was there. There was a fireball right in that spot where it is, and the girl blew it with all her power. She's a fire breather, I found her at a club.

MD: So who came up with the concept for this Madonna picture?
David: It's all me, I draw it up, put the colors, I was there while they were painting it, the whole thing. I always think the client would I have a big part of the input that goes into it. Everything, it's a beloved piece, an experiment.

MD: And does your creative process include Macintosh computers? I notice you have a few Macs in your studio.
David: Yeah, we have Macintosh. I think they're great. It's important for you to know that Macs are tools, but my photos are representations. They capture moments of things that existed in time. These events took place and I'm just documenting them. I set them up, I instigate the scene and I set it up. The process is not just a drawing, or an illustration on the computer, it is more fun to have the girl sitting in a set that I designed.

MD: Do you use Macs yourself?
David: I'm not computer literate at all, I don't want to disappoint you but I have never sent an e-mail in my life, and I can't type.

MD: So in terms of retouching, who does it? Do you send it out?
David: I've worked very closely with Christopher Masciocchi for years and years. He's moved to San Francisco now so he e-mails me the images and we go back and forth.

MD: So can you explain the process?
David: I send him the prints. And he scans them. He's absolutely the best digital retoucher for fashion, beauty and celebrities in the world. He pioneered it. He was using the technology way before Photoshop existed. We started working digitally eight years ago and we would spend all night working. Christopher is so sophisticated that, first of all he's an artist. He's studied anatomy, he understands anatomy, he knows what doesn't work. He has an aesthetic sensibility that most digital retouches do not have. They are technicians.

MD: But how well can you see and proof the images from an e-mail?
David: Well, we've worked closely for so many years that he knows what I like I don't have to tell him what my tastes are, I just tell him what has to be done.

MD: Do you think that technology has influenced your work?

David: Well, I think that digital retouching and Macintosh systems are tools, and they'll always be tools. Really the computer is a slave to photography, it will always be. You have to start with an image and en idea. You can't create something from nothing.

MD: And where do you start with an image?
David: My photos are placed you don't really live, it says a lot a person who will collaborate with me. It says more about them and where they're willing to go and how they view themselves. Inside every actor there is a kid that wants to be on stage and people to notice them. There's a bit of an exhibitionist in every actor and somebody who wants to entertain and perform as an artist. As a little kid I didn't think about the money. I didn't think about the contracts or agents. I just wanted to entertain, and I try to remember that when I shoot people.

MD: So you keep this philosophy in the back of your mind?
David: It's just something I think about. I like to see how far they'll go.

MD: Do you push the actors, singers, and other people you photograph?
David: Sometimes, if I really strongly believe that is...I'm not here to trick somebody. First of all everyone looks beautiful in the photos, and I will challenge anybody who will say find me a picture of a movie star or a rock star that I've photographed that doesn't look great.

MD: But isn't that so subjective?
David: No, it's not. I'm not interested in showing people's pimples. I'm not interested in showing their faults. I'm not interested in exploiting their faults. They're all idealized.

MD: But why are you so interested in perfection?
David: I'm interested in the idealization of people. That's for me a form of escape, and as human beings we all enjoy seeing beautiful faces, we enjoy looking at beautiful faces, it is proven. New-born babies will stare longer at a photograph of a person that we consider beautiful. People in our society have judged certain features and characteristics as ugly and some beautiful. When someone shows a baby a picture of what most people consider "ugly", a homely looking person for instance, the babies will spend more time looking at a beautiful face. How much of that is superficial? I don't know. I like people that are beautiful. I like movie stars to get beautiful, and make them bigger than life.
"My House, Alek Wek in Christian Lacroix, New York" picture represents this. She is beautiful and some of the elements of this picture are computer generated. We made the "Pink House" small and shot it in the same light. The house was about six feet, and we just wrapped it in fabric.

MD: What do you like and dislike the most about what you do?
David: I dislike when celebrities are nervous working with me and they don't appreciate my work.
MD: Why would they get nervous by working with you? You seem so laid-back and non-threatening?
David: I'm not a threatening person, but my work is threatening to them. It's not safe, but it's memorable. It's unfair when I'm trying to be creative and people turn it into a business thing when it really should be creative.

MD: Now about your book cover, why did you name it "Hotel LaChapelle"?
David: It's sort of like the personal LaChapelle Land: Hotel is a smaller place, it's not the whole Land. A hotel is a place where people meet anonymously. And all kinds of things happen at Hotels: people go there to go on affairs, honeymoons. All kinds of things. All of a sudden you include travel, it means staying in a place you don't normally live. That can be true of a photo too.

MD: Where did you photograph this image?
David: It's that building right there, (pointing out the window across the street. I always look at that building. I'd look at all of those tenant buildings and all these lives are happening, like how many people are out there having sex right now...

MD: Why did you make it so sexual? I don't know.
David: It says a lot about you. What does that mean? Every part of this photo is sexually related.
Sex is a gift. Sex is one of the gifts in life that you don't have to be rich to enjoy. It's a gift. I am always drawn to more physical things and all those women and men represent the spontaneous behavior of people.