David LaChapelle

I've been away from my studio for a bit, and have been spending more time 'doing research.' Maybe I'm trying to justify my growing obsession with pop-culture, but I find myself recently attracted to highly saturated images and colors, high gloss, sparkly jewels, gold and diamond encrusted medallions, and just really extravagant objects and imagery. I'm not quite sure what it is about these stereotyped displays of wealth and culture that I find to enticing, but there is something about how these commercial goods and images so bluntly stroke my sensibilities and entice my inner consumer.

On a recent trip around the Internet, I came across this imaged by David LaChapelle. I have really always liked his use of hyper-saturated colors, and the high sheen that everything in his images seem to have. His subjects become plasticy objects, and everything is equalized into a glossy visual melee. Bordering on pop-grotesgue, he creates images that are visual cacophonies which seem to be suspended from time and place.

Davids imagery has the ability to transform even the classiest subject into an objectified commodity. The people in his photographs uncannily seem to lose their identity and morph into anonymous objects that could almost be mass produced.