Now showing at New York’s Hasted Kraeutler gallery: Nick Brandt – On this Earth, A Shadow Falls

Photographer Nick Brandt first fell in love with Africa in 1995, when he visited Tanzania to direct Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” video. While there, Brandt was deeply moved by the beauty and spirit of the continent’s endangered animals, and felt compelled to capture and preserve what he saw.

So, over the past ten years, Brandt has photographed these animals, and sees this project as “my elegy to these beautiful creatures, to this wrenchingly beautiful world that is steadily, tragically, vanishing before our eyes.” Rather than using a telephoto lens, Brandt finds ways to get up close to his subjects, convinced that his proximity to the animals dramatically impacts his ability to reveal their personalities. As he writes, “You wouldn’t take a portrait of a human being from a hundred feet away and expect to capture their spirit; you’d move in close.” For this reason, it sometimes takes Brandt weeks of patience to get close enough to the subject to get a single photograph, often times just weeks before they are killed by poachers.

“What I am interested in is showing the animals simply in the state of Being,” Brandt explains. “In the state of Being before they ‘no longer are.’ Before, in the wild at least, they cease to exist. This world is under terrible threat, all of it caused by us. To me, every creature, human or nonhuman, has an equal right to live, and this feeling, this belief that every animal and I are equal, affects me every time I frame an animal in my camera.”

On this Earth, A Shadow Falls is on view at Hasted Kraeutler through May 19, 2012.
www.hastedkraeutler.com

*All images courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler.

Now showing: David LaChapelle’s American Jesus…

In 2006, famed photographer and director David LaChapelle made a conscious break from his successful fashion and celebrity career to focus instead on fine art pursuits. Since that time, LaChapelle’s photographic work has maintained the fabulously dramatic, evocative nature we’ve come to expect from him over the years, now elevated by more complex subject matters. Consistently incorporating references as varied as art history, street art and pop culture, LaChapelle’s new work addresses concepts such as consumerism and cultural hierarchies.

Now, for his first New York solo show since 2008, LaChapelle‘s brings three dramatic series to the Paul Kasmin Gallery: American Jesus, Thy Kingdom Come and The Rape of Africa (images below). American Jesus – a series began over a decade ago – includes three large-scale photos depicting Michael Jackson as a modern day, Biblical martyr (from LaChapelle’s final photo shoot with Jackson). In Thy Kingdom Come, LaChapelle considers the relationships between greed and corruption amongst the religious establishment.

And The Rape of Africa - perhaps LaChapelle’s most famous work of recent years – makes its New York debut this month as well. Inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s Venus & Mars (1484), the well-known allegorical work depicts the poised and beautiful Venus, goddess of love, having tamed and diffused Mars, the vengeful god of war, who soundly sleeps, while small cherub figures play with Mars’ instruments of warfare.

In LaChapelle’s interpretation, he subverts the meaning of the original work by proposing a black Venus (Naomi Campbell), striking in her beauty, yet completely powerless to both her treatment as property and to the destruction of her land through mining and war depicted in the background. LaChapelle’s Mars is not sleeping as much as satiated by his own victories, sitting on top of his plunder gained by conquests. The contemporary allegory is layered with imagery, as seen in the jarring combination of young children with deadly weapons. For the exhibit, the photograph is presented alongside studies for the work, illuminating LaChapelle’s background in the traditional medium of drawing and watercolor.

David LaChapelle’s work has been exhibited internationally at museums and institutions including the Museo de las Artes, Guadalajara; the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City; the MOCA, Taipei; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); The National Portrait Gallery, London; The Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin; The Brandhorst Museum, Munich; and the Kunsthaus Wien, Vienna.

American Jesus runs through September 18, 2010.

And to learn more, check out my recent interview with LaChapelle for Dazed & Confused here.

*above: American Jesus

*above: Sketch for The Rape of Africa. LaChapelle’s photographs typically begin with a series of compositional graphite drawings, collages, watercolors, and mixed media sketches—a little known facet of his artistic process.

*above: The Rape of Africa

*All images copyright David LaChapelle and courtesy of Fred Torres Collaborations.

Swiss-born, New York-based photographer Henry Leutwyler‘s new series, “Neverland Lost: A Portrait of Michael Jackson,” considers Jackson’s life through the artifacts he’s left behind: the iconic white glove, the black hat, the bejeweled jackets. Shot at Neverland Ranch in the year prior to Jackson’s death (when these items were intended for auction), this extensive series of archeological-style object portraits reveals a side of Jackson most were not privy to: the life of a man caught between his public persona as one of the greatest entertainers of all time and his sequestered, private life. Collectively, they also compose an adult Jackson’s self-constructed fantasy world, one which seemed in many ways an attempt to recreate a childhood he may never have really had.

Now, Leutwyler’s series has been published in gorgeous book form by Steidl, (available for purchase through Amazon), and an exhibit of the same name is open now through August 14th at M+B in Los Angeles. Below, check out photographs from the series, plus an interview with Leutwyler for Center Stage, Mark Gordon’s weekly radio show.

According to the ever-eloquent Leutwyler: “This collection of photographs was never intended to be a book. In February of 2009, I flew to California on a magazine assignment to photograph the iconic white glove of pop star Michael Jackson. Even though I am a lifelong portrait photographer, I have always had the urge to investigate people through the simplicity of the artifacts that make up their lives. I went to Los Angeles with one vision in mind and little more than a day to capture it. Michael Jackson’s primary home at Neverland had been vacant for several years and his belongings lay packed and stored in crates, awaiting public auction. When I arrived at the venue for the shoot, I had no idea what I’d find. What I discovered in those crates evoked in me a deep sadness. From the man who would be king, his artefacts were of the simplest design. A sequinned tube sock. A child’s trinket. The famous glove – so revealing in its dime store simplicity, so mundane in its plainness. I completed the initial assignment in two days, yet found myself unable to leave. My assistants and I remained on location for another twenty-four hours, poring over more than a thousand items from which we had to choose our images. I returned to New York after three days, with a premonition that the task wasn’t finished.”

He goes on: “It seems that an individual’s belongings rarely become available without some tragedy as a backdrop. Despite my exhaustive efforts to create a window into Jackson’s private world, the portrait was not complete. I knew there were other objects that had not been made available to be photographed. In April of 2009, I flew back to California. Through perseverance and good fortune, we were granted one last access. This time, when I returned to New York, I had the pieces I needed to complete the story. Shortly thereafter, our investigation became a documentation of a life cut short. It is said that the Pharaohs built tombs to reveal their lives to future generations. Michael Jackson sacrificed his childhood to the calling of his musical gift. Neverland was the pyramid he constructed to a lost childhood. The artifacts captured in this book return us to the Neverland he lost.”

Henry Leutwyler’s work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Esquire and Vanity Fair. In 2008, Leutwyler was the recipient of the ASME Magazine Cover of the Year award and recognized as the Graphis Photographer of the Year. His work has also received acclaim from the Art Directors Club of New York, The Society of Publication Designers, Photo District News, D&AD, American Photography and the James Beard Foundation. For more information on Henry Leutwyler – and to see more of his stunning work – visit henryleutwyler.com.

*All images courtesy of Henry Leutwyler.