Regarded as one of the greatest contemporary photographers, David LaChapelle is an irreverent artist, combining a hyperrealistic, almost caricatural aesthetic with profound social messages. At once acclaimed for his celebrated nude photographs and criticized for having too close ties to the American star system, LaChapelle has shown his work at the world s principal museums. On the one hand, this monograph looks back over his artistic career, with around eighty-five works that date from its beginnings, in the 1980s, up until more recent years, with all the most important series, such as Good News for Modern Man, Earth Laughs in Flowers, Negative Currency Project, or Still Life; on the other, it presents a completely new series, New World, for the first time. New World is the climax of the reflection on faith, life, and the importance of nature that have accompanied LaChapelle throughout his life; it explores the longing for intact nature and spirituality in the world today. It is a colourful, exotic dream presenting the moods and secrets of mind and faith, inextricably linked to living nature.
