Epic Style
RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID LACHAPELLE’S PORTRAITS OF MODERN
BOXERS EXIST IN A MONOMYTHIC GLOW BY BRIAN HARTY
B oxing has a certain way it likes to see things done. For photographs of fighters who aren’t throwing punches, it generally likes to have guns blazing for a flex at the scale, a pre- or post-fight battle howl or a classic ready-to- rumble pose – tilted forward, fists raised and eyes locked on the camera lens. Photographer David LaChapelle prefers a different approach. Born in Connecticut in 1963, LaChapelle dove into the pop culture scene of early-1980s New York City wrapped in an art-school fascination with Renaissance painting. After being hired by Andy Warhol to shoot photos for Interview Magazine, he developed a creatively unfettered style that merged the classical poses and lush environments of the Old Masters with contemporary fashion and celebrity culture – paying homage, provoking and having fun on the job, all at the same time. Pushing production concepts ever higher, LaChapelle incorporated storytelling with a devoutly physical approach; even well into the digital age, he and his team still construct his dreamlike sets by hand and eschew computer-generated effects. For 40-plus years, the pop-culture immersion has
continued. It would take less time to name-drop the celebrities he hasn’t worked with. One stands out, however: “Everyone always asks me, ‘What was your most exciting photoshoot?’” LaChapelle told The Ring. “And it was – my father unfortunately wasn’t alive anymore – but getting to photograph my dad’s hero, and by proxy my hero, Muhammad Ali. Because it wasn’t just his boxing where he was heroic. How he lived his life.” That theme resurfaced when LaChapelle was commissioned to produce a series depicting fighters of the modern era. True to form, he set aside the familiar primal screams of gladiators in favor of the silence of sacred spaces and the mythos of the hero’s journey. Boxers take on a ritual significance in his photographs, descending into places where we can’t go to do things we can’t do, giving us glimpses of divine perfection and an elemental, otherworldly path that they walk for our sake. And our entertainment, of course. LaChapelle understands show business as much as he does art history. As Warhol once told him, “Do whatever you want, just make everyone look good.”
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