Surrealist Artist David LaChapelle on Display in New York

David LaChapelle’s still life photos allotting to the traditional Baroque paintings will be on exhibit presented by the Fred Torres Collaborations from Feb. 23 through March 24.

In “Earth Laughs in Flowers,” LaChapelle explores contemporary vanity, vice, materialism and the unknowingness of humanity.  Through symbolisym in the photo’s like flowers, fruits and skulls along with materialist things such as a Starbucks cup, Barbie dolls and cell phones.  The series is mind bending because each piece looks more like a realist painting than a photograph.

The title “Earth Laughs in Flowers” comes from the poem “Hamatreya” (1846) by Ralph Waldo Emerson in which flowers ridicule human arrogance as masters of the planet. LaChapelle began his photography carear in the 1980’s showing his artwork in New York galleries. Andy Warhol along with many others fell in love with his surrealist pieces with social undertones.