At the begining there was Madonna with her single 'Like A Prayer' music video. A controversy in 80s, because of the black pastor, the kissing scene with the black pastor, the burning cross. As author Judith Marcus pointed out in her book, Surviving the Twentieth Century, Madonna used the church to make her point on victimization. For her, the main impact of the video lies in the fact that Madonna emerged from the role of a victim by "empowering" herself. The author asserted that the video metaphorically "attacked" the Church's demand for female compliance, indicted the Church's precept of a dichotomy between body and spirit, and at the same time assailed the Church's denial of female spirituality. Campbell noted that the video does not follow any definite narrative, although there is a plethora of images in it.
Jesus is My Homeboy was a fierce and edgy fashion editorial by David La Chapelle for iD Magazine.
In Chapelle's own words, Jesus hung out with "...street people, the hookers and the hustlers. That's who he felt comfortable with, empathised with. Back then that was considered blasphemous but actually that's where Jesus pulled his disciples from – the street people and the marginalised. That's why in [my photography series] Jesus Is My Homeboy I had people from the street dressed in modern clothing, in modern settings, with Christ, because that's who Jesus would be with if there was a second coming." All of the disciples were shady characters as are we at best.
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| La Chapelle always have a genious interpretation of Christianity. Provocative, rebellious in a modern way. |
A music video for the song 'Judas' was co-directed by Gaga and Laurieann Gibson and co-starring Norman Reedus. It has a Biblical storyline where Reedus played Judas Iscariot and Gaga played Mary Magdalene. The video portrayed them as modern day missionaries going to Jerusalem. It included the Biblical story of Judas betraying Jesus, and ended with Gaga as Magdalene getting stoned to death. Prior to its release, the Catholic League condemned Gaga for the alleged use of religious imagery and her role in the video. On the radio show Last Call with Carson Daly, Gaga explained to the host that "Judas" was about always falling in love with the wrong man over and over again. "'Judas' is a very, very dark song. It's rad", she added. With MSN Canada, Gaga revealed the metaphors and the meaning behind the song:
'Judas' is a metaphor and an analogy about forgiveness and betrayal and things that haunt you in your life and how I believe that it's the darkness in your life that ultimately shines and illuminates the greater light that you have upon you. Someone once said to me, 'If you have no shadows then you're not standing in the light.' So the song is about washing the feet of both good and evil and understanding and forgiving the demons from your past in order to move into the greatness of your future. I just like really aggressive metaphors—harder, thicker, darker—and my fans do as well. So it is a very challenging and aggressive metaphor, but it is a metaphor. - Wikipedia
David LaChapelle (born March 11, 1963 in Fairfield, Connecticut) is a photographer and director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique, sexualized, and often humorous style.
LaChapelle's work has been described as surrealist, grotesque, shocking and ironic. Ingrid Sischy, long-time editor of Interview magazine, has said there are three main aspects to his "strong and individualistic" photography: a sense of humour, political awareness and social awareness.[9] His use of celebrities exaggerates aspects of their personalities and their personal lives.[10] LaChapelle was a guest on an episode of Bravo's Work of Art reality show in August, 2010. - Wikipedia
Initially distinguished by his campy fixation with white-trash culture, LaChapelle is also known for his groundbreaking use of computer manipulation and futuristic fashion shoots and for placing hollywood celebrities - from madonna, uma thurman, elton john to drew barrymore to
the X-files' david duchovny -- in wildly imaginative and often compromising erotically charged settings.
LaChapelle's monstrosities are that breed of gaunt, blemishless human built and enslaved by heavy makeup, lighting and the glorifying voodoo of photographic attention, e.g., models, transsexuals and ... leonardo di caprio.
It is a prophecy of even scurvier spiritual illness yet to come from our media-centric society, in the not-so-distant future. - designboom
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| The First Cover of Anna Wintour Debut in Vogue US. My interpretation is the cross on the couture blouse is reflection of high fashion which represented by the vertical line, and the ready to wear which represented by the horizontal line. The top which is a high fashion aka couture, combined with jeans, a common people wear. |
