Signed; David LaChapelle - David LaChapelle Giacomo Ceruti. Nomad in a Beautiful Land - 2023

Leporello format. Signed by LaChapelle at Santa Giulia Museum (Italy), october 2023.
David LaChapelle interprets pauperist painting by italian Giacomo Ceruti.
Together with the series Jesus Is My Homeboy (2003), there is an unpublished work in the book entitled Gated Community. The snapshot Gated Community, freely inspired by Ceruti's themes, is an opportunity to look at the poverty of our times, surrounded by the ostentation of an opulence that contrasts sharply with pressing needs that are diffused globally and increasingly urgent even in Western society. As in Ceruti's work, in LaChapelle's poverty is neither stereotyped nor ostentatious, and the aim is not to arouse pity.
LaChapelle's shot depicts a long tent city, a refuge for countless homeless people who - in front of the car park of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) - crowd the pavements, colouring the city with a surreal Hollywood opulence. This new photograph by LaChapelle thus insinuates itself between the folds of the present, to provide an unprecedented and almost provocative interpretation of marginality: an epic of social decadence in which ancient art and contemporary photography establish a fruitful dialogue, using their respective formal differences to solicit our society, afflicted - as was Ceruti's - by a widespread poverty often ignored by most.

David LaChapelle is one of the most distinctive and influential photographic artists of the late 20th and early 21st century. Born in Connecticut in 1963, LaChapelle studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts before beginning his career in New York City, where he was discovered at an early age by Andy Warhol and hired to shoot for Interview magazine. This early mentorship shaped LaChapelle’s bold, irreverent, and highly experimental approach to visual culture.
Internationally renowned for his vibrant, surreal, and hyper-stylized imagery, LaChapelle blends pop culture, classical art references, and socio-political commentary into an immediately recognizable visual language. His photographs often feature celebrities, fashion icons, and musicians, portrayed in theatrical settings rich with color, symbolism, and elaborate staging. From Naomi Campbell to Tupac Shakur, from Madonna to Lady Gaga, LaChapelle has collaborated with some of the most iconic figures of contemporary culture.
Beyond celebrity portraiture, LaChapelle’s work engages with themes of consumerism, spirituality, the environment, and the human body. His elaborate compositions draw on elements of Renaissance painting, Baroque drama, and contemporary pop aesthetics, creating photographs that are both spectacular and deeply reflective. Over time, his practice expanded to include fine art projects, landscapes, still lifes, and richly allegorical tableaux that bridge the worlds of photography, cinema, and installation art.
His images have appeared in leading fashion and art publications, including Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Face, Rolling Stone, and i-D. He has also directed music videos, films, and advertising campaigns that have helped shape the visual identity of modern pop culture.
LaChapelle’s artistic achievements have been recognized through major museum exhibitions worldwide, and his work is held in significant public and private collections. Several monographs have been dedicated to his oeuvre—including Heaven to Hell, Hotel LaChapelle, Good News, and Lost + Found—all of which underline the breadth and impact of his creative vision.
Celebrated for his ability to combine high art and mass culture, David LaChapelle stands as one of the defining visual storytellers of our time. His work is immediately recognizable and continues to influence photography, fashion, and the broader visual arts with its boundary-pushing imagination and unmistakable aesthetic power.