Photographers: David LaChapelle & Annie Liebowitz.

(Project 4.2)

David LaChapelle

David LaChappelle is an American photographer who is very well known for conveying social or historical issues and events in his work while also photographing celebrities. He is also known for his use of colour in his photos.

An example of a very meaningful piece of work from him is his photoshoot with actor Robert Downey Jr.

In this picture, he can be seen high up on what can only be inferred to be a building as he seems to be located in a city.

The photo at a glance just looks sort of random and unusual however actually has a lot of meaning.

Robert Downey Jr is someone who has struggled with a lot of things and if a person looking at this photo knows his story and what he has been through they might know more about the meaning of the photo.

In the picture, he can be seen laying right on the edge of the building next to a rather large pile of fortune cookies. This unusual imagery put together could mean that Robert is looking desperately for a reason not to roll the other way off the building and end his life. His facial expression features a sort of unbothered expression however this contrasts greatly to the amount of fortune cookies, showing that he is in fact bothered and desperate to find a reason not to go through with killing himself. This is sometimes the case for people with suicidal thoughts and feelings and is probably representative to his personal experience.

The way LaChapelle has used the rule of thirds could also be meaningful as he has positioned Robert mostly in the horizontal middle thirds. This could just be because he wanted his subject to be in the centre however it could also mean something more. Robert could be positioned horizontally in the middle because he is in the middle of a decision. He could move toward the top three horizontal thirds and his life could end or he could move towards the bottom of the photo and away from the edge, therefore choosing to live.

Finally, the photographer has also made it so that his subject stands out by using contrasting colours. Most of the tones and colours in the photo are in a more grey-blue range but Robert has been dressed in some red, warm coloured trousers that allow him to stand out against the background. The red coloured sauces near the fortune cookies and the red text on the box also draws attention to the right places. The fact that most of the hues in the photo seem cold and are mostly grey and blue could be used to create a gloomy, depressing atmosphere and could represent Robert's sadness and lack of hope too.

Annie Liebowitz

Annie Liebowitz is a photographer who is mostly known for her portraits of various celebrities. She often shoots for magazine covers.

Here is an example of a photo Liebowitz took for a Vogue cover.

It can clearly be seen that the photographer does a good job at capturing her subject's personalities as they shine through when you look at her photos.

In this photo the poet and activist Amanda Gorman is featured. She is positioned looking directly at the camera allowing her to seem powerful - as a good activist should be. In addition to this when doing some research on this shoot I found at

https://edition.cnn.com that Gorman had stated:

"What a joy to do this cover while wearing a piece designed by ground breaking black designer: @virgilabloh that honours my heritage." Meaning that she is proud and really values her heritage and most likely considers it as a big part of her as a person. Annie Liebowitz photographing her in this dress allows Amanda's uniqueness and personality to be represented by just one photograph. The use of colour in this photo not only represent something as beautiful as culture and heritage but also just simply harmonize and go together beautifully making the picture aesthetically pleasing to look at.

The use of the rule of thirds in this photograph and where Amanda is positioned could suggest that she is standing tall, being proud of where she comes from and who she is and is standing up against things such as discrimination and ignorance which is relevant because this is what she does with her activism and her writing.