carlagirl photo.

practicing the arts of cogitation since the late 1900s.

"perpetual digressions of a soul wanderer"

Posted on | April 22, 2005 | 7 Comments

I know I’m supposed to respond to responses, but I forgot to include Tawana, also a blogger (http://nappyscraps.blogspot.com), in my morning shout-outs (I borrow that title from her blog). Thanks for your note! It is young women like you who inspire me.

But let’s talk David LaChapelle (maybe I should be doing this on your blog?!) Seriously. I’m fascinated and repelled by his work. I think he’s channeling Jean-Paul Goude circa Jungle Fever big time, which is not an aesthetic I ever hoped to see resurrected. It’s complicated I know, but I’d be interested to know why you list him as an “eyedol.”

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7 Responses to “"perpetual digressions of a soul wanderer"”

  1. adrienne
    April 22nd, 2005 @ 5:46 pm

    Is little Super Carlagirl a Soul Wanderer with extraordinary powers?

  2. Carla
    April 23rd, 2005 @ 11:20 am

    um, yeah!

  3. Lisa
    April 24th, 2005 @ 10:44 am

    I’m glad to see that Super Carlagirl is BACK!

  4. adrienne
    April 24th, 2005 @ 1:29 pm

    And how! Hey Carla, is there a way you can make her fly around that top box on the main blog page? I’d love to see that!

  5. fab feline
    April 26th, 2005 @ 6:59 am

    Hi,

    I love LaChapelle’s intense, saturated colors, technical proficiency and fantasy-like (sometimes I think alien-like) themes. I enjoy his images because they’re shocking and surreal, obnoxious and often downright silly. He’s very creative and I find that when I’m studying any of his images, I’m wondering out loud “What the hell was he thinking?”.

    Some of his photos are like garish cartoons made all the more eerie because his subjects are human caricatures. This quality also makes his images easily discernable. I definitely know a LaChapelle image when I see one.

    My own images tend to be more “classic” and “ordinary”, so his photography is inspiring because he goes above and beyond anything I have ever consciously conceptualized. But more than anything else, his photos are fun! He puts all these crazy elements together and somehow makes it all work. Every time I revisit one of his images, I find something new. That’s exciting!

    If images give clues to the personality of the photographer, then I would guess that LaChapelle is a bit insane. :)

    Honestly, I don’t see myself creating these kinds of images on a regular basis or for profit, but I did have fun experimenting with his ’style’.

    easy*
    tawana

  6. fab feline
    April 26th, 2005 @ 8:52 am

    Damn, I used the word “images” a lot in that response. :0/

    :)

  7. Carla
    May 3rd, 2005 @ 4:57 pm

    Oh, Tawana, we all overuse the word “image!” Somehow “photo” doesn’t always seem to convey the intentionality of the work; it seems too mechanical.

    You know, I totally get what you’re saying about David LaChapelle’s work—it’s seductive, and outrageous, so it’s hard not to want to keep looking at it. Granted, he makes everyone look like a freak. But I think his broad racial stereotyping is pandering to the most simplistic notions we have about representation and shock value. When, say, Rose McGowan is presented as alternately a Madonna/whore figure, it means nothing in terms of young, brunette white women and probably little in terms of McGowan herself. But what does it mean when Naomi Campbell is mounted by a (fake) tiger in Playboy? It automatically conjurs a problematic history of the perception of black women’s sexuality as animalistic. I also think it’s creepy when gay white men turn race into camp as though all stereotypes are so outrageous that they can be recreated and thus celebrated, because that’s ultimately what his photos do. I thnk history is more complicated than that.

    That said, your portrait is totally lovely! Thanks for sharing it.

  • CARLAGIRL PHOTO was founded on 14 February 1999 by Carla Willliams, a photographer, writer, and editor, born, raised and heading back to (yea!) Los Angeles, California.

    It was established with two goals: to be able to make my own work widely available for free, and to make accessible my research about artists of the African Diaspora, especially photographers, and in particular women. As it developed it grew to also include GLBTQ artists.

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