David LaChapelle

Discuss how LaChapelle uses appropriations and Hyper Real Photographic

techniques to challenge immorality in the 21st century. To do this please select

at least one photograph from David LaChapelle’s series ‘Jesus is My Home Boy’,

2003 as evidence.

In the photograph ‘Last Supper’ from David LaChapelle’s series ‘Jesus is my Home Boy’, 2003, LaChapelle uses appropriations and hyper real photographic techniques to challenge immorality in the 21st century. LaChapelle’s ‘Last Supper’ is an appropriation of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’. Da Vinci’s painting represents the scene of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. In the bible story, Jesus is betrayed by Judas, which makes the viewer question whether Jesus will be betrayed in LaChapelle’s appropriation.

In David LaChapelle’s ‘Last Supper’, the image of Jesus, the ultimate symbol of Christian values and morality, is appropriated from Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’. In the bible story of the last supper, Jesus makes himself a peer to his disciples, and accepts them as they are, as Jesus has also done in LaChapelle’s series. LaChapelle said in an interview, “The apostles were not the aristocracy, they were not the well-to-do, they weren’t the popular people; they were sort of the dreamers and the misfits”. In ‘Jesus is my Home Boy’, LaChapelle compares the apostles to street people and the marginalised in the 21st century. The way the people in his photographs are dressed and behave suggests they are from a sort of hip-hop culture, a group which is often marginalised or feared because of the stereotypes that surround it. In this series, Jesus sees beyond these stereotypes and welcomes the group into his company. In the photograph ‘Last Supper’, Jesus transfers his morality from the bible into the 21st century. Without him in the image, it seems to be just a photograph of a group of unsettled, perhaps angry individuals, sitting around a table drinking beer, arguing, and maybe gambling, all things

that are considered immoral in the 21st century. But when Jesus is added to the picture, he brings Christian morality and values to this contemporary scene, and by association, the apostles or ‘home boys’ are also seen as moral. This challenges immorality and immoral stereotypes in the 21st century by bringing Jesus, the ultimate symbol of Christian morality, and the story of the last supper, into a contemporary scene to give viewers a new perspective on the issue of morality.

Visually, the image of Jesus, appropriated from Da Vinci’s painting, brings ‘Last Supper’ together. Jesus is the visual focal point in the frame, and the use of perspective draws the viewer’s eyes to Jesus, who is a unifying element in the image. In his red and blue clothes, he unifies the colours in the rest of the photograph: the blue tablecloth and the red and blue in some of the ‘home boys’’ clothes. Although Jesus brings the image together and is seen as a peer to the others in the image, LaChapelle has set him apart from the rest using hyper real photographic techniques, and has given him both social and physical gravity. The viewer’s eyes are drawn straight to Jesus’ eyes in the centre of the image, and we see him sitting with open arms, glowing. Not only does his body language set him apart, but LaChapelle has literally made Jesus glow, making him seem almost alien. Jesus holds such heavy weight in this image, because he seems so alien compared to the rest of the group. By making Jesus so hyper real in this image, LaChapelle is able to use his weight as a moral figure to transfer this morality to a group in contemporary society that would often be stereotypically viewed as immoral, and challenge immorality in the 21st century.