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Hotel Lachapelle
An all-new selection from the outrageous "enfant terrible" of contemporary photography, this volume is even sexier, funnier, and more fantastical than the bestselling "LaChapelle Land." 158 full-color photos.
168 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 1999
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About the author
David Lachapelle
61 books23 followersDavid LaChapelle is a photographer and director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique and often humorous style.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 29, 2025
David Lachapelle is undoubtedly one of the most powerfully original fashion photographers of his time and place. There are images in this book that seem to come out of nowhere but his fantasy unconscious fully formed and ready to sear themselves into your brain with their uninhibited audacity and joy in the act of creation. Alexander McQueen in a Snow White dress, red leather evening gloves and a crown of thorns carrying a lit torch as he prances away from a freshly-sacked castle, an improbably dressed model carrying his train as a horse tramples its knight behind them. A diptych of Mark Wahlberg - in the middle of a brawl on the left, fresh shiner on his eye and blood spattered across his knuckles - in full dive bar drag on the right, lit cigarette dangling out of his dazed mouth. The Dollhouse Disaster miniatures - a giant Cameron Diaz breaks through a bathroom wall to peep the ass of a showering Ken doll while on the other page, a distressed Barbie pulls out her pistol to fire six shots into the face of Ewan McGregor King Kong-ing his head through a hotel window, visibly disappointed that she's not into the abduction scene. Model Jen Dawson wakes up The Morning After to find that her room has been ripped out of the building it once occupied and now sits in the middle of abandoned ruins and burning rubble. Tori Amos as Earth Goddess, looking like Botticelli's Venus reborn out of a giant set-piece lotus flower, hanging out in nature with a menagerie of impossibly large fireflies. Alan Cumming lounging nude on a plastic-wrapped loveseat, a plastic-covered viola delicately covering his privates. Eminem, also nude, licking at the sparks firing off of the lit fuse of a phallic stick of dynamite held exactly where you'd expect it to be. Lil Kim posing demurely with Louis Vuitton-print skin. Olesia in the red masked dress from McQueen's legendary Joan collection looming over a cowering, unnamed model wearing only red leather heels and a strange, oversized papier-mâché head of Sylvester Stallone. The list could go on for pages. It feels like no one led the aesthetic of the late 90s quite like Lachapelle.
Unfortunately, this also means this work very much captures the zeitgeist of the times - in that it is very much made in that End of History fin-de-siecle cultural moment when it felt like multicultural plurality was being achieved for once and all and the prejudices of the past were easy fodder for knowing winks and the Get-A-Load-Of-This-Guy cam in ways that read as insensitive now that the ground is being lost underneath us again. The photos of Madonna show her embracing the aesthetics of Indian culture in a way that could read as reverent tribute but comes across as appropriation - much like the British accent she started putting on in the early 00s. Not sure why she's pulling the double Hamsasyas in the middle of a street party in West LA, but at least she looks good in the back-lit fire hydrant spray doing so. Mike Myers' similar Hindu-themed portrait feels like unfortunate foreshadowing for The Love Guru. And I genuinely don't know what the hell to make of the portrait of Amanda Lepore in full body blackface, grinning with a slice of watermelon cut yonic-style out of the fruit being held between her legs. Much like the work of Jean-Paul Goude, there's a lot to unpack with the racial politics at play here. Not to mention the fact that Lachapelle works a lot with satirical skewerings of mainstream expectations of beauty - but his technical skill at putting across these images serves to undermine the joke and makes them simply glamorous, ultimately contributing to the culture he's trying to deflate. His skill with photo manipulation is genuinely impressive, but when the end result falls a bit short of the mental ideal, the results can be oddly uncanny - the uncomfortably smoothed-out portrait of Harry Belafonte "as a young man" is the one that really sticks out as unfortunate to me.
There's a few photos that read poorly because of events in the intervening years that no one involved (save some of the subjects) could have foreseen. Marilyn Manson was a transgressive style icon who defined the countercultural 90s and as such, he's all over this book - he's also a notorious abuser and a man constantly facing accusations of sexual assault, so I don't exactly welcome his presence on the page with open arms. The many photos of Rose McGowan in compromising positions (posing sexily on a gynecologist's table in the most out-there example) feel very odd when taken in the context of her outspoken criticism of the sexual misconduct prevalent throughout the entertainment industry in the post-#MeToo era. Billy Corgan is a bit more of a personal dislike for me, but any regular guest of Alex Jones' InfoWars is someone who I just don't have the capacity to view as cool. And then there's the photo of Jerry Springer triumphant among the people who populate and watch his show - that particular stew of American anti-intellectual bravado that is so poisonously inescapable as of [current year] that it's hard to look at, knowing what he was directly pointing the way to. The fact that it gives very odd, unintentional foreshadowing to the photos of Trump post-assassination attempt and his rioters on January 6th is just the cherry on top - a picture almost too prescient for its own good. It's a product of its time that forces you to reckon with what exactly that means from this present vantage point. Lachapelle is an edgelord at heart, but some of the most provocative stuff in here is basically just the result of intervening years adding unexpected wrinkles.
All in all, it's a fascinating piece of glossy magazine culture at its bacchanalian peak right before the monoculture ate its own head in search of its wallet. Lachapelle's creative vision should serve as a great inspiration to anyone in the pursuit of persona crafting and image manipulation - he's a true surrealist for the mass media age.
Unfortunately, this also means this work very much captures the zeitgeist of the times - in that it is very much made in that End of History fin-de-siecle cultural moment when it felt like multicultural plurality was being achieved for once and all and the prejudices of the past were easy fodder for knowing winks and the Get-A-Load-Of-This-Guy cam in ways that read as insensitive now that the ground is being lost underneath us again. The photos of Madonna show her embracing the aesthetics of Indian culture in a way that could read as reverent tribute but comes across as appropriation - much like the British accent she started putting on in the early 00s. Not sure why she's pulling the double Hamsasyas in the middle of a street party in West LA, but at least she looks good in the back-lit fire hydrant spray doing so. Mike Myers' similar Hindu-themed portrait feels like unfortunate foreshadowing for The Love Guru. And I genuinely don't know what the hell to make of the portrait of Amanda Lepore in full body blackface, grinning with a slice of watermelon cut yonic-style out of the fruit being held between her legs. Much like the work of Jean-Paul Goude, there's a lot to unpack with the racial politics at play here. Not to mention the fact that Lachapelle works a lot with satirical skewerings of mainstream expectations of beauty - but his technical skill at putting across these images serves to undermine the joke and makes them simply glamorous, ultimately contributing to the culture he's trying to deflate. His skill with photo manipulation is genuinely impressive, but when the end result falls a bit short of the mental ideal, the results can be oddly uncanny - the uncomfortably smoothed-out portrait of Harry Belafonte "as a young man" is the one that really sticks out as unfortunate to me.
There's a few photos that read poorly because of events in the intervening years that no one involved (save some of the subjects) could have foreseen. Marilyn Manson was a transgressive style icon who defined the countercultural 90s and as such, he's all over this book - he's also a notorious abuser and a man constantly facing accusations of sexual assault, so I don't exactly welcome his presence on the page with open arms. The many photos of Rose McGowan in compromising positions (posing sexily on a gynecologist's table in the most out-there example) feel very odd when taken in the context of her outspoken criticism of the sexual misconduct prevalent throughout the entertainment industry in the post-#MeToo era. Billy Corgan is a bit more of a personal dislike for me, but any regular guest of Alex Jones' InfoWars is someone who I just don't have the capacity to view as cool. And then there's the photo of Jerry Springer triumphant among the people who populate and watch his show - that particular stew of American anti-intellectual bravado that is so poisonously inescapable as of [current year] that it's hard to look at, knowing what he was directly pointing the way to. The fact that it gives very odd, unintentional foreshadowing to the photos of Trump post-assassination attempt and his rioters on January 6th is just the cherry on top - a picture almost too prescient for its own good. It's a product of its time that forces you to reckon with what exactly that means from this present vantage point. Lachapelle is an edgelord at heart, but some of the most provocative stuff in here is basically just the result of intervening years adding unexpected wrinkles.
All in all, it's a fascinating piece of glossy magazine culture at its bacchanalian peak right before the monoculture ate its own head in search of its wallet. Lachapelle's creative vision should serve as a great inspiration to anyone in the pursuit of persona crafting and image manipulation - he's a true surrealist for the mass media age.
April 7, 2024
This book is a collection of La Chapelle’s photographs and a letter from David explaining some of his artistic methods. His art is - wow. I could look at one piece for a half hour just thinking sky the story that might be going on. It’s so hyperreal, fantastical, colorful, loud, new. Some of the details are so incredibly intricate, it’s shocking. I LOVE it. It’s not for the faint of heart.
In his letter at the end of the book, I do challenge him on one of his viewpoints. He is talking about plagiarism, and he states: “ originality is not about flipping through magazines and getting your inspiration and copying it …there’s a notion that plagiarism exists only in the verbal, but it actually exists in the visual as well. I believe in getting my ideas through my experience, through my mind, through my dreams, and my fantasies, not other people’s.” He might be merely stating his disapproval of people closely re-creating other peoples ideas or art, which I understand and sympathize with. However, if someone views other peoples art and is inspired by that to create something else, that’s a beautiful thing, and I think that can bring much more beautiful and creative art to our world that can further inspire and bring joy to us all. Perhaps La Chapelle feels the same, and I misunderstood. Regardless, his art is very mind and soul opening, and this will be a book that I come back to again and again.
One quote that he quoted that I loved: “A psychologist recently wrote that ‘aesthetics have replaced ethics,
so that stealing is no longer a moral, but being ugly and fat is.’ I’m drawn to people, still willing to work against this frightening irony. “ YES, La Chapelle. Thank you. ♥️
In his letter at the end of the book, I do challenge him on one of his viewpoints. He is talking about plagiarism, and he states: “ originality is not about flipping through magazines and getting your inspiration and copying it …there’s a notion that plagiarism exists only in the verbal, but it actually exists in the visual as well. I believe in getting my ideas through my experience, through my mind, through my dreams, and my fantasies, not other people’s.” He might be merely stating his disapproval of people closely re-creating other peoples ideas or art, which I understand and sympathize with. However, if someone views other peoples art and is inspired by that to create something else, that’s a beautiful thing, and I think that can bring much more beautiful and creative art to our world that can further inspire and bring joy to us all. Perhaps La Chapelle feels the same, and I misunderstood. Regardless, his art is very mind and soul opening, and this will be a book that I come back to again and again.
One quote that he quoted that I loved: “A psychologist recently wrote that ‘aesthetics have replaced ethics,
so that stealing is no longer a moral, but being ugly and fat is.’ I’m drawn to people, still willing to work against this frightening irony. “ YES, La Chapelle. Thank you. ♥️
October 5, 2018
It is a good book, I like
August 28, 2007
This book has been a major influence in my art since I've gotten it. He is an amazing photographer. His images are so creative. He uses contemporary life, pop icons, surrealism, advertising, and just plain weirdness, and he blends them and mashes them and twirls them all together to come up with sparkling eye candy.
July 3, 2007
hyper-realism makes me feel like a giggly schoolgirl.
some of lachapelle's work make me want to drop bombs of creative love all over the place. ( i was going to make a fecal metaphor... but i wanted to go military instead. dont know if it was better. )
forget the celebrities, keep the genius.
some of lachapelle's work make me want to drop bombs of creative love all over the place. ( i was going to make a fecal metaphor... but i wanted to go military instead. dont know if it was better. )
forget the celebrities, keep the genius.
February 29, 2008
This is one of the best pop photobooks of the 90's...whimsical, creative and most of it is done without the aid of photoshop.
April 10, 2008
I am so sick of him
December 9, 2009
My sister designed all this sets for the photos in this book so I am partial. A well curated selection of some of David's best work. He is a true visionary and artist.
January 18, 2013
essential images of contemplation for any poor sod whose mission is to describe the occult glamour of Hollywood and its various underworlds.
January 7, 2013
A brilliant collection of brilliant photographs. If you don't own this, you should!
August 8, 2015
I LOVE that this book (at least my version) comes in a beautiful box. Love the always amazing photos from one of the most brilliant photographers of our time.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews