Friday, September 04, 2009

Arty Farty Friday ~ David LaChapelle, photographer.


I won't pretend I'd heard of this photographer before finding his name in an on-line list. His surname attracted me, so I decided to investigate his work and his astrology. Much of his work is reminiscent of surrealist artists such as Magritte, and there's often an undercurrent of eroticism which reminds me of Jack Vetriano paintings....but wilder.








Wikipedia tells us that David LaChapelle, as well as being simply a photographer, is also video/commercial/film director working in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography. His first professional work was for Andy Warhol in his "Interview" magazine.

Interesting work! Surreal or satirical treatment of celebrities and situations - definitely not yer average portrait photographer of the stars. Some examples of his work (not included below) are neither for the fainthearted nor for family viewing.

I felt sure he'd have Aquarius and/or Uranus prominent, with Neptune and Pluto playing into his personal planets. Neptune is said to rule photography - it's bound to have pride of place.

Let's see if I was right.

Born 11 March 1963 in Fairfield CT.




Sun in Pisces is a good start. Pisces is ruled by Neptune, planet of creativity, and photography. Sun in Pisces often signifies a dreamy, imaginative, near-psychic chracter. LaChapelle has Sun, and Jupiter conjoined in Pisces, with Mercury, planet of communication early in the same sign. Thats a lot of Pisces. Jupiter is very happy in Pisces, being its traditional ruler before the discovery of Neptune. Jupiter, the benefic, planet of excess and exaggeration is working well through the camera lens of David La Chapelle, in my researches I've seen his work described as "exaggerated" more than once.

Yes - we have some Aquarius too! Saturn and Venus both in the sign of high intellect, out-of-the-box thinking, inventiveness and if Uranus hooks into personal planets, we often see a zany rebellious wildness creeping in. Uranus in Virgo in LaChapelle's chart opposes Mercury in Pisces - here's that Uranian link to his wild side! Erotic Pluto, the other outer planet I expected to see linked in to personal planets is also in Virgo, widely conjunct Uranus, and also opposing Mercury. Bingo!

Neptune in Scorpio lies in harmonious trine to Pisces Sun and Jupiter - as ruler of photography and creativity - this is one link I most wanted to see.

Without a time of birth the Moon's position can't be established, nor can rising sign. Moon could be in early Libra or late Virgo. Moon in Libra, ruled by Venus, planet of the arts would be a good fit, but a late Virgo Moon could oppose his Sun/Jupiter, echoing the way Pluto and Uranus oppose Mercury.

There's enough here to convince me that astrology is at work !

A few examples of the work of David LaChapelle, included are portraits of Elton John, Madonna, Naomi Campbell, Ewan McGregor....and some I cannot identify:

















David LaChapelle has four published books of photographs: LaChapelle Land, Hotel LaChapelle, Heaven to Hell, and Artists and Prostitutes.
More examples of his work can be seen via Google Image and at ARTNET.


2 comments:

Wisewebwoman said...

I'd seen a few of his works before, T, but never quite so many gathered in the one spot.
Thanks for that!
XO
WWW

Twilight said...

Glad it was of interest, WWW. He's a wee bit "out there" for my taste, but an interesting character. :-)