In his latest series entitled Recollections in America, photographer David LaChapelle used a production process in which he builds “neo-collages” from acquired photographs taken during intimate family gatherings in America during the 1970-1980’s. By introducing additional objects and people, which otherwise have nothing to do with the original images, the artist creates dystopian retrogrades. Preventing the viewer from discerning the original snapshots from the re-imagined, the nuanced manipulations (flags, firearms, slogans and other signs of American power) act to heighten the symbolism, and inherent contradiction of the American “Dream” already present in the source period photographs. An intimate, touching, and eccentric portrait of Americans.
David LaChapelle: Recollections in America
26 April – 7 June 2018
Galerie Bene Taschen
Moltkestraße 81
50674 Cologne
Germany
