David LaChapelle- Analysis of work

The Last Supper (2003)

This is a photograph by David LaChapelle and it shows a large group of 'gangsters' that surround a model representing the character of Jesus around a long horizontal table in a small room. LaChapelle aimed to recreate the famous painting by Da Vinci, "The Last Supper" which featured Jesus and his disciples.

He replaces Jesus' disciples in the painting with a group of disciples of different race, ethnicity and style who are all representing modern life. LaChapelle also places a glowing halo coming from Jesus' head to show his absolute majesty and to glorify the image of Jesus himself.

I feel that he uses irony and humour to show how the teachings of Jesus can be intergrated into modern society. LaChapelle said that through this series, he wanted to “rescue the teachings of Christ” from the fundamentalists, who use Jesus’ words to judge and condemn rather than uplift. He also uses a high saturation of colours in this photo to amplify each section of the photograph to make his subject and symbolic meaning behind the photo stand out better.

Second Photographer- David LaChapelle

Biography

David LaChapelle (born 1963) is an artist and photographer known for combining high-resolution photographs with social messages. LaChapelle’s photography career began in the 1980’s when he began showing his artwork in New York City galleries. 

LaChapelle’s striking photographs have been featured on the covers and pages of Italian Vogue, French Vogue, Vanity Fair,  Rolling Stone. He has also featured celebrities such as Madonna, Elizabeth Taylor, David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio, Muhammad Ali and Britney Spears in his work.

Third photographer- Eddie Adams

Biography

Eddie Adams (1933 – 2004) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American photographer and photojournalist. Some of his most famous works consisted of many portraits of celebrities and his coverage of 13 different wars.

He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for breaking news with his photo of a Vietnamese officer executing a communist guerrilla in Saigon during the Vietnam War (photo to the right). Adam's photographed the bullet while it was still contained within the victim's head.

Adam's also took photographs for Time, Life, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Parade and other publications. He also shot for clients in fashion, entertainment and advertising.



End Times

 Jill Greenberg's 'End Times'

Greenberg's ‘End Times’(2006) is a series of photographs featuring a close up of toddlers faces while they were under emotional distress. To get the children to cry, they were offered sweets, then it would be taken away from them. The pieces were titled to reflect Greenberg's frustration with both the Bush administration and Christian Fundamentalism in America at the time.

Greenberg's use of intense lighting in this series of photos makes the photographs of the children seem more like a painting, rather than a photograph because the form of the children are more defined. The photographs are in colour and it seems as if the contrast and brightness of the photos have been increased. The form and shape of the children are quite detailed and are more dominant because of the unnatural lighting applied onto the subject. Greenberg has taken the photograph of the children really close to their faces and has also captured the exaggerated actions and movement of the children as the cry.

Interestingly, these photographs of the children crying dramatically evoke a mood of helplessness because the viewer can't understand why these children look as if they are in such agony, so they feel powerless because they can't empathise or help comfort the child. Considering the fact that it is only a loss of sweets that has caused these children to react so dramatically, emphasises the fact that children are quite sensitive and emotional. Greenberg's message behind these crying children emphasises her frustation with the American president, George Bush Jr. at the time.

First photographer- Jill Greenberg

Biography

Jill Greenberg is an American photographer and artist (born in July 1967). She is known for her portraits and fine art work. Essentially, the majority of her photographs always have a political connotation  or are quite controversial and tend to give off a message.



End Times

 One of her most famous series of photographs is called  ‘End Times’ which featured a series of portraits of toddlers that were under an emotional distress to represent a deeper political meaning.

Greenberg has done commercial work for companies such as Microsoft, Sony Pictures, Coca Cola and Warner Bros. Her photographs have appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Wired and numerous other publications.

Brainstorming Love & Hate

Above I have listed all the things I love and then created a mood board of images that I copied from Google Images. I overlapped some photos to create more space on the powerpoint slide. I wanted to show all of the things/objects/people that I love on this mood board of images. For example, music, Muse, Yorkshire Tea, Converse and kittens are some things that I love. These images present who I am or my character as a person through visually showing what I love. It relates to my theme of Love & Hate because it is a brainstorm of images that represent things I love. I learnt that I love a lot of idols and things ather than objects and it helps me to understand my character as a person more.

Above are two pages brainstorming things/people/objects I hate. For example, One Direction, Pauls Boutique, spiders and depression are just some things that I hate. I have listed all the things I hate then I created a mood board of images that I copied from Google Images.These two slides relate to my theme of Love & Hate because they brainstorm images that represent things I hate. I learnt that I love more things than I hate.