David LaChapelle

One of the first photographers I've ever discovered was David LaChapelle. With his work mainly in fashion and entertainment, LaChapelle's images immaculately depict pop culture and have become notorious not only in the art world but in mainstream media as well. His pictures are instantly recognizable due to their vibrant colors, extreme reality, and often shocking content.

LaChapelle attended North Carolina School of the Arts, then the Arts Students League and School of Visual Arts in New York. He was first hired by Andy Warhol for Interview magazine, where he first began shooting celebrities. Not long after he began shooting for top editorial publications around the world. His images have graced the covers of Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, and Rolling Stone, just to name a few.

Once establishing himself as a contemporary photographer, LaChapelle began directing music videos, live theatrical events, and documentary film. He's done videos for artist such as No Doubt, Britney Spears, and Moby. He's also done stage work, such as Elton John's The Red Piano at Caesar's palace. LaChapelle's also directed several documentaries, such as the award-winning RIZE, a film about the dance style Krumping.

His work is still featured today in countless museums around the world. Within the past year his work was on exhibition at the Museo del Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City and also the Musee de La Monnaie in Paris.

Alessandro Bavari's "Sodom and Gomorrah"

When looking over several of the links listed in the ART 408 blog, I came across Alessandro Bavari, and Italian born artist who works mainly with photomontages. Bavari's work is an intricate collage of photos taken of people, animals, landscapes, and other subjects that result in surreal and fascinating images that will leave the viewer awestruck. His subject matter is also strongly influenced by indo-european myths and allegories as well as 14th and 15th century artists. 

"Sodom and Gomorrah" is an ongoing project of Bavari's that visually depicts the legendary damned cities. As Bavari writes on his website, "I have imagined these two cities as a kind of amusement park for visionaries, where my gaze is neither accusing nor benevolent, but simply amused and curious, open to taking in as much as possible." His interpretation of the cities is simply fascinating, with images that are as shocking and grotesque as the written descriptions of the town from the Bible and other texts. Several of the images in fact depict excerpts from the book of Genesis, such as the town oracle who predicts the onset chaos that would come from the city being damned, which is seen above. Or the two angels who come to stay as guests in Lot's home, as pictured below. 

Aside from the stunning visual imagery in "Sodom and Gomorrah" one must also take note of the complexity and detail within each image. Every image is huge in size and composed of hundreds of other images each intricately placed into the frame. It's almost as if each image is a puzzle in which one would have to stare at for several minutes in order to see every detail and separate images within it. 

To conclude, Alessandro Bavari's "Sodom and Gomorrah" is a visual masterpiece that brilliantly depicts one of culture's most legendary myths. His attention to detail and exquisite photomontaging creates images that are shocking, surreal, and will stay in the viewer's mind for days on end.