PORTFOLIO
ENTERING LACHAPELLE LAND
by SHIRLEY HALPERIN

If photographers were rock stars, David LaChapelle would be Bowie, Stipe and Zappa all rolled into one. Hell, you could even throw Lennon into the mix. Artists like these never stopped aspiring; the same applies to David LaChapelle.

In some circles, this teen hipster turned high-fashion photographer is famous. But to most people, the name LaChapelle rings only the faintest bell-ironic, since those of us who aren't fashion-industry "insiders" are surrounded by his work in advertisements, magazines and television, including his latest conquest, music video.

Remember the 1996 MTV "Raw" promos that featured nursing-homed versions of Courtney Love (in a wheelchair and still wearing that baby doll dress) and Madonna (a 90-year-old submissive hag)? That was a LaChapelle gig, which came along after his entry into Vogue, Details and Diesel ad campaigns. At that time, LaChapelle was a respected photographer who had come a long way from his humble beginnings as a busboy at the legendary Studio 54. There, at age seventeen, he met Andy Warhol and, like many before him, became his protégé. It would be a relationship that would propel his ambition and lead him to disciplined study and frequent testing. By the time LaChapelle began shooting professionally, he had disciples lined up and dying to work for him. They're still there as production managers, assistants and stylists.

LaChapelle has managed to turn photography on its head, all the while using the world's most recognizable celebrities as giving subjects. His extravagant productions blur the lines between still and video. Glancing through LaChapelle Land, a collection of his portraits, is more like looking through a pop-up book than a coffee-table-worthy photographic history. His subjects seem to jump off the page. It's not surprising then that LaChapelle would occasionally switch gears and direct his vision to another format: music videos, a natural extension of his showmanship. MTV viewers got a healthy dose of his expanded art when he directed the Dandy Warhols video "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth"- instant buzz-bin material. Now he's back to work his magic again. This time, he lends his genius to "Sugar Cane" by the Space Monkeys; a band newly signed to Interscope Records with a catchy single destined to sweeten the charts.

SMUG caught up with David LaChapelle in his East Village studio as he was preparing to shoot a new installment of outrageous ads for Camel cigarettes. Among the clamor of the two dozen or so people working for hours before he arrived, he graciously and modestly acknowledges his awe over the sheer size of his production, though he never second guesses his purpose. He knows that he is where he is because he belongs there.

When you are hired to shoot a video, does the band approach you or do you actively pursue a song or band that you really like?

With the Dandy Warhols, they sent me a letter that said, "Do whatever you want. Pick whatever song you want off the record. We were thinking of this song…" I thought this was great. If they're really behind me like that, then the record company will have to give me money. Still, it was a challenging song lyrically, not musically. I didn't want to make it serious or dark or preachy. It's been done. So I made it funny.

Do you find videos more or less challenging than print photography?

Definitely more challenging. With video there is a storyline or a narrative. It has movement. You have to give action and direction.

The opening scene to the Space Monkey's video looks a lot like Van Gogh's "Potato Eaters" painting. Was that on purpose?

You know, you work yourself so crazy that sometimes you don't notice stuff like that. But someone had mentioned that to me once before. I wanted to do this really dingy apartment. It's really easy to do old antique dingy, but it's more challenging to do dingy like Modern art.

Now that you're a celebrity in your own right, how has your relationship with your subjects changed?

My work is more challenging than a lot of the celebrity portraits they are used to [doing]. I don't want to show flaws. I don't want to show wrinkles. I want them to look like stars. I like movie stars and I like rock stars. I like having them to look at. I like visually stimulating artists. For those reasons, I want them to look great, and I try to do things that are thoughtful and not just silly. I won't dress anyone up as a gerbil for no reason.

Your pictures had a great impact on editorial photography, but many people say that magazine photography is not as exciting as it used to be. What is your take on magazines these days?

I spend a lot of money on sets and props. Because my ideas are conceptual, the production is going to be expensive. So I'm always hearing about how little money magazines have. There is a big corporate thing happening with magazines, where they are owned by one or two companies which instill so much fear in photo editors. They are constantly worried about losing their jobs, so they play it safe…Also there are a lot less great photographers and artists today than there were a decade ago. That, I honestly believe, is a direct result of AIDS.

Did you have any involvement in the movie Studio 54?

No. Studio 54 was great in the early '80s, but it's not the same now. When I worked there as a kid, I knew that it was not my time. That's why I didn't stuff cocaine up my nose every chance I got-there were like ten chances a night. I didn't want to do it because I knew it wasn't time for me to burn out.

Do you have any advice for today's aspiring photographers?

Do what your heart desires. Look at everything and make yours different. Try to find what it is that turns you on. If you don't get it at first, just keep doing it and doing it. Eventually you'll have a body of work. When I started out, a lot of aspiring photographers wanted to be Bruce Weber-that was the prevailing look of the moment. But what's the point of that if you can do something fresh, something new, something you love? -