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I wanted it to provide an escape route, I wanted to make pictures that were fantastic and took you into another world, one that was brighter. I started off with this idea.
David LaChapelle -
Then I got this idea in my head that magazines were like a gallery and if you got your magazine page ripped out and someone stuck it on their refrigerator, then that was a museum – someone’s private museum.
David LaChapelle
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My work is about making candy for the eyes. It's about grabbing your attention.
David LaChapelle -
My pictures are about getting as far away from reality as possible. Dreams should be part of our everyday life.
David LaChapelle -
I would rather die than be a serious artist, or a fake artist.
David LaChapelle -
People get devalued in Hollywood when they age, despite all their efforts to stay relevant and beautiful and young. They can't get jobs anymore.
David LaChapelle -
Michael [Jackson] had paintings of himself at Neverland depicting himself as a knight and surrounded by cherubs and angels. People might think he's an egomaniac, but he's not. It's because the world turned against him.
David LaChapelle -
I've never wanted to be part of an inner circle of any scene. I've always been an outsider looking to question and subvert.
David LaChapelle
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In the fashion world, I was always an outsider, but I made people look good, so I had a career.
David LaChapelle -
I'm a photographer, period. I love photography, the immediacy of it. I like the craft, the idea of saying 'I'm a photographer.'
David LaChapelle -
We use fashion for status and to beautify and there's nothing wrong with that, but when it becomes completely unbalanced, then you're living a decadent life. And when that happens on a global scale, you're living in a decadent world.
David LaChapelle -
I didn’t see any difference between being a photographer or being an artist. I didn’t make those boundaries. If someone wants to think it’s art, that’s great, but I’ll let history decide.
David LaChapelle -
The matriarchal society 1300 years ago in Egypt was a peaceful society; that's where you had no war for thousands of years! When they switched to patriarchal society, when the male energy ruled, we became obsessed with the greed. Now we are in this time of intense greed!
David LaChapelle -
You work with people who are obsessive about shopping, obsessive about owning things and buying things, like this purchase is going to make them happy. And you want to say to them, 'You know, no amount of real estate is gonna fill that void.'
David LaChapelle
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I believe Michael [Jackson] in a sense is an American martyr. Martyrs are persecuted and Michael was persecuted. Michael was innocent and martyrs are innocent. If you go on YouTube and watch interviews with Michael, you don't see a crack in the facade. There's this purity and this innocence that continued [throughout his life].
David LaChapelle -
I had this duality growing up with my dad being a strict Catholic and his brother being a priest and my mother finding God in nature, so I've taken a little from both [traditions].
David LaChapelle -
You can't change people's minds, we are not God. We can do our best to do what we do, whatever job we have to bring sort of goodness out there. But we can't change people. As an artist what I can do is to communicate!
David LaChapelle -
I moved to New York when I was 15, but my parents lived nearby in Connecticut, so I could go be in this incredible countryside when I needed it.
David LaChapelle -
My idea was that if I took a picture of somebody and years later, or whenever, they would die and if someone wanted to know who this person was, they could take one of these pictures and it would tell who the person was.
David LaChapelle -
You just do what you love, and then a style happens later on.
David LaChapelle
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I am not God. But I can only do my role here on this planet. The role I feel I was given since I was a kid was to be making art and I only wanted to give and I never let money be my God.
David LaChapelle -
I'm not condemning the Catholic Church - it's too big, it's like condemning a nation and that would be prejudiced.
David LaChapelle -
I love fashion and beauty and all those things, I still do but I think that it has changed the shift, that the greed is ruling the planet right now.
David LaChapelle -
What's shocking is cruelty and torture, and that's become our entertainment. Kids can play violent video games, but God forbid they look at a naked woman. That's pornography, that's perverse. No!
David LaChapelle