LaChapelle Heaven to Hell is the long-awaited third volume in an exhilarating trilogy that began with LaChapelle Land (1996) and continued with the infamous Hotel LaChapelle (1999). Packed with astonishing, color-saturated, and provocative images, those titles both became instant collector’s items and have since gone through multiple printings. Featuring almost twice as many images as its predecessors, LaChapelle Heaven to Hell is an explosive compilation of new work by the visionary photographer. Since the publication of Hotel LaChapelle, the strength of LaChapelle’s work lies in its ability to focus the lens of celebrity and fashion toward more pressing issues of societal concern.
LaChapelle’s images—of the most famous faces on the planet, and marginalized figures like transsexual Amanda Lepore or the cast of his critically acclaimed social documentary Rize—call into question our relationship with gender, glamour, and status. Using his trademark baroque excess, LaChapelle inverts the consumption he appears to celebrate, pointing instead to apocalyptic consequences for humanity itself. While referencing and acknowledging diverse sources such as the Renaissance, art history, cinema, The Bible, pornography, and the new globalized pop culture, LaChapelle has fashioned a deeply personal and epoch-defining visual language that holds up a mirror to our times.
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"The only link between Andy Warhol and J-Lo." - GQ, London"
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By C. Reynolds
Format:Hardcover
The photographs in this book almost seem like slick fashion images until something in them catches you by surprise. Courtney love in the figure of the Pieta holding the (lookalike) corpse of Kurt Cobain. With a child playing at her feet. A row of men wearing boy scout sashes sitting on a log grinning, and at their feet the passed out body of a man with his pants down, a shotgun in his hand, surrounded by beer cans. What is happening here? These pictures are fabulous, in the way something in a dream or nightmare is like a fable. Hillary Clinton standing at an executive desk with not one thing out of place, but a half-rotten apple sits on the desk.
What amazes me is that LaChappelle pulls all these people. Courtney Love is really Courtney Love, and Hillary is really Hillary. Kanye West is Kanye West wearing a crown of thorns. I suppose there's no end to celebrity ego so people are willing to volunteer for his photographs, except LaChapelle is obviously skewering these figures. At the minimum he plays games of irony with their image or their legacy. He deflates their celebrity 'brand' and really repossesses their faces for his own work. Justin Timberlake dressed as Elton John. Pamela Anderson throttling a bloodied Tommy Lee with a big smile on her face, like something out of a slasher flick from the 1970's.
But the book is not all celebrities. There are spreads of seemingly ordinary people doing what appear to be revoltingly stupid things. A man with a handgun on his dresser and a baby bottle in his hand is pouring candy liquor in it to give to an already inebriated child. There is an obvious element of theater to these vignettes, a feeling that you're looking into a shadow box from the imaginary 4th wall.
I had never seen LaChapelle's work before picking up this book. The honest freakishness of his pictures remind me of Diane Arbus. The slick, highly processed magazine feel of them reminds me of Annie Liebovitz. And the humor at the expense of the viewer reminds me of Damien Hirst. All in all, this is a book of challenging pictures. I would not leave on the coffee table for if the family are bringing young children by the house, but older kids will get the celebrity-skewering and consumer-skewering nature of the work quite well.
What amazes me is that LaChappelle pulls all these people. Courtney Love is really Courtney Love, and Hillary is really Hillary. Kanye West is Kanye West wearing a crown of thorns. I suppose there's no end to celebrity ego so people are willing to volunteer for his photographs, except LaChapelle is obviously skewering these figures. At the minimum he plays games of irony with their image or their legacy. He deflates their celebrity 'brand' and really repossesses their faces for his own work. Justin Timberlake dressed as Elton John. Pamela Anderson throttling a bloodied Tommy Lee with a big smile on her face, like something out of a slasher flick from the 1970's.
But the book is not all celebrities. There are spreads of seemingly ordinary people doing what appear to be revoltingly stupid things. A man with a handgun on his dresser and a baby bottle in his hand is pouring candy liquor in it to give to an already inebriated child. There is an obvious element of theater to these vignettes, a feeling that you're looking into a shadow box from the imaginary 4th wall.
I had never seen LaChapelle's work before picking up this book. The honest freakishness of his pictures remind me of Diane Arbus. The slick, highly processed magazine feel of them reminds me of Annie Liebovitz. And the humor at the expense of the viewer reminds me of Damien Hirst. All in all, this is a book of challenging pictures. I would not leave on the coffee table for if the family are bringing young children by the house, but older kids will get the celebrity-skewering and consumer-skewering nature of the work quite well.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I loved this book. it was so refreshing to see pictures with bright and vivid colors. and just when you think that photographers have done it all, you look at a book like this and see fresh images. I highly recommend this book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By MK
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Disturbingly beautiful photographic art. Each photo is richly detailed. PS. It is a huge coffee table book that weighs a ton...def a conversation piece.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful
Different but beautiful, some stranger than others. David LaChapelle is in his world and I enjoyed the experience of seeing it.
Published 20 days ago by Sam
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best
Muy buen libro, tiene mucha buena información y tiene muchas fotografías excelentes que nos ayudan a los fotografos a crecer
Published 2 months ago by stefanie elisa wolff
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Motivating Book for aspiring "Pro" celebrity Photogs
I can't understand why there is such a big deal about this guy's work other than he had an idea and shot it first, then made sure MANY people saw it right away. Read more
Published 3 months ago by BLAYZE!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cool book
If you like David LaChapelle, you'll like this book. The photos are cool, the subject matter is cool and it make s a great coffee table book.
Published 5 months ago by VCzo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing book
It's just amazing book. I can't believe that it cost me only $25. Seriously, I would pay much more for it. Big book, big colorful good quality pages. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Bonzolip
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Coffee Table Book
Heaven to Hell is a beautiful collection of David LaChapelle work. Friends love to look through it when they come over to visit. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Adam W
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awsome book
Awsome book, great images, big photos, is more of a visual book not an educational book but is exacly what i espected!!!!
Published 13 months ago by luis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome!
A gift for my husband, who loves LaChappelle's work. It was his favorite Christmas present! I can best describe this as a baroque collection of photography. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Annie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bien Mundano
Me gusta mucho esa posibilidad de LaChapelle de poder mezclar a los casi dioses del pop musical, el pop histórico, llevarlos a lo mas mundano de la piel de la sociedad y... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Luis311
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-provoking, Striking
The photographs in this book speak for themselves individually and as a collection. The message is in the details and in your face simultaneously. Glad I have this.
Published 17 months ago by Bryson
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