The new pensive side of the provocative and sometimes bizarre celebrity photographer David LaChapelle is celebrated in a Milan show inspired by Michelangelo.
The self-styled 'Pop photo artist' and music video innovator LaChapelle, 38, has come up with an arresting update of the Renaissance's genius's Sistine Chapel fresco The Flood.
The exhibit, opening today at Palazzo Reale, highlights Lachappelle's "shift from glitzy ephemera and surreal portraits to weightier if no less striking meditations on death, the idea of the sublime, the presence of the divine and the meaning of life," curators Gianni Mercurio and Fred Torres say.
Nowhere is this newfound philosophical and socially conscious bent more apparent, they say, than the striking work which gives its name to the show, the Flood - a witty and disturbing denunciation of the unbridled consumerism and value-less drift of contemporary society.
Models strike Michelangelo-like poses or float in seeming limbo to dramatize the humanitarian concerns of the Fairfield, Connecticut-born artist whose bid to move from showbiz froth to serious art was signalled in a recent award-winning film, Rize, about the anti-gang Los Angeles 'krumping' dance culture.
LaChapelle got his break from Andy Warhol in the 1980s and became renowned for out-of-kilter depictions of Hollywood stars and glitterati like Paris Hilton.
His tongue-in-cheek work with musicians like Elton John and Marilyn Manson - and groundbreaking videos with stars like Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Christine Aguilera and Amy Winehouse - brought him greater fame.
The cult lensman's most iconic snaps are already in photo galleries worldwide, but now LaChappalle appears to be bidding for wider and more lasting glory.
Presenting the Milan show on Monday, he said:
"Seeing my works installed in art galleries was like being reborn. Only history will say whether I'm an artist or not but one thing is sure: I finally feel myself".
