DAVID LACHAPELLE "The talented subversive"
About David Lachapelle:
When LaChapelle was 17, he met Andy Warhol, who hired him as a photographer for Interview. Warhol reportedly told Lachapelle "Do what you want. Just make sure everyone looks good." Lachapelle's friends during this period included Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Lachapelle's images subsequently appeared on the covers and pages of magazines such as Details, GQ, iD, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Face, Vanity Fair, Vogue Italia and Vogue Paris. an ultra-bright, colorful and hyper-realistic style", and his photos are known for "crackling with subversive - or at least hilarious - ideas, crude energy and laughter. They are full of juicy life. " In 1995, David Lachapelle filmed the famous “Kissing the Sailors” commercial for Diesel. It was staged during the World War II peace celebration and became one of the first public advertisements showing a couple gay or lesbian kissing. Much of its controversy was due to its release at the height of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell debates in the United States, which led the U.S. government to openly ban the service military to gay, lesbian or bisexual people. In a lengthy article published by Frieze in 1996, the ad was credited for its "overall tone of heavy-handed humor and sarcasm." In September 2011, when the Don't Ask, Don't say not was ultimately removed by President Barack Obama, Renzo Rosso, the founder and chairman of Diesel who had initially approved and lobbied for the ad, said: "16 years ago, people didn't want it. Stop complaining about this ad, now it (bi- and open homosexuality in the US military) is finally legally accepted.
