Earth Laughs in Flowers

Garish, colorful, luscious, lavishly detailed, sculptural, oftenprovocative, sometimes scandalous: that is how we can describe theimpressive oeuvre of the American photographer David LaChapelle, whocaptures stars such as Madonna, Pamela Anderson, Michael Jackson, Bjoerk,and David Bowie in photographic portraits, fashion photographs, or musicvideos. Once a contract photographer, LaChapelle has long become an artistin his own right who confidently says, "I don't see any difference betweenbeing a photographer and being an artist. I didn't make those boundaries.If someone wants to think it's art, that's great, but I'll let historydecide."