David LaChapelle

One of my favourite photographers around at the moment is David LaChapelle. He was born in America in 1963 and since then has done commercial photography, fine art photography, directed music videos and films and been an artist. His images have been used on covers for magazines such as Vogue, GQ, Rolling Stones, i-D and Vanity Fair. His Fine Art photography has been in exhibitions in both galleries and public institutions around the world.

However he is most famous for his photography, which is always stylised as a kind of hyper reality, however it has references to art history and sometimes has social messages. He has worked with a variety of celebrities including Tupac, Eminem, Madonna, Lil Kim, Paris Hilton, Hillary Clinton, Britney Spears and Muhammed Ali.

With this in mind I wanted to look into his work and see if there were any Elizabethan influences. I found so many ways he had modernised the Elizabethan Style but here were a few of my favourites.

I think this is the most subtle Elizabethan influence, from the pale skin to the crimped hair. But my favourite part is the subtle hints of red on the lip and the cheeks. Although he makes it a little more modern as rather than being on the apple of the cheek it seems to contour upwards a little but I think that overall this photo is a classy way of showing the Elizabethan style. 

These photos with Uma Therman also have a slight resemblance to the fashion in Elizabethan times. Although the skin is pale and the hair is crimped, my favourite part of this photo is the lips, I love how bright and and attention grabbing they are. I also feel that the rose is suggestive, although it isn't a red rose, the Tudor Rose would regularly pop up in Elizabeth Portraits, so it suggests that sort of influence. 

This Britney Spears photography has obvious connections to the Elizabethans. A popular trait was to have almost un seeable eyebrows, some would even pluck theirs out to create the look. To make the look more contemporary however, bleaching the eyebrows also had a similar outcome. I also love how bold the lip is in comparison to everything else, the hair and the skin are so pale that it makes the lips so much more dramatic. 

My final and favourite image from David is this one, although very out there, I feel it is a great modern take on an Elizabethan style. What I was first drawn to was the hair, it reminds me of the crimping technique we learnt with the geisha grips, as it creates a very frizzy effect. To add to this the colours used are very Elizabethan as pale hair was the trend, however red hair was the favoured colour. As for the make up the pale complexion and red lips are key to the Elizabethan look, however the boldness of the lip is a lot more contemporary as they wouldn't of been able to create such a bright colour. 

I love how in all of LaChapelle's photography he makes his hints subtle and because of how out there his work is they are way more contemporary takes on the era. I take inspiration from this as there are certain aspects I wouldn't deme as beautiful in this day and age, therefore would like my own work to have a very contemporary twist. 

Reference: Wikipedia. (). David LaChapelle. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_LaChapelle. Last accessed 5/12/14.

Kasmin, P. (). David LaChapelle. Available: http://www.paulkasmingallery.com/artists/david-lachapelle. Last accessed 5/12/14.