David LaChapelle: new website

..at least I haven’t seen this new one yet. Not quite sure how much I like the new stuff, but I admire him for the great output he had over the years, for his literally fantastic productions and also the other projects he did, like the RIZE film (I unfortunately only saw some parts of it on youtube) or the stage design he did for Elton John (can be found under projects>stage).

The website shows hundreds of pictures and it’s fun to see all the complete editorial shoots he did for Italian Vogue, I-D etc.

I actually came back to his website after I found I really weird editoral David LaChapelle produced for Vogue Hommes, obviously Found Footage photographs from the 70s / 80s with some models/things photoshopped.Very entertaining.

© All photographs David LaChapelle Studio

Adam Bryce (via www.slamxhype.com ) wrote about this work:

“Vogue Homme have just published a series of photographs gathered together by David Lachapelle titled ”The Americans”. Re-opening old family albums from the holiday 4th July, Lachapelle has co ordinated a full volume of images that contain the patriotic pride of the American family which border on debauchery. An aesthetic that differs radically from david Lachapelle’s usual photos that are hyper-stylized, but they still prove to be provocative and disturbing.”

Ryan Mc Ginley II – Levis and Wrangler campaign similar?

BTW: Ryan Mc Ginely last year shot a campaign for Wrangler that won a prize in Cannes , now competitor Levis launched a campaign with exact the same photographer and a topic and style that is not so far away from what we saw with Wrangler… See an article at Creative Review here.

Dietmar Henneka on the advertising business

Thorsten told me about a video where advertising (mostly cars) photographer Dietmar Henneka talks about his job and the relation to the ADs and his clients.
Though this lecture was already held in 1999, it’s still interesting too see and gives an intense insight into the “disaster of being an advertising photographer” in Germany

Long video, but worth watching every single minute (i love the part where he shows to the client how telelens and wideangles lenses work…)
Of course there is a lot of polemic in his lecture, and for sure he exaggerates, but somebody like him who has been in the business for decades should somehow know, shouldn’t he?

Unfortunately, the video is in german only.
See it here .