Hotel LaChapelle: Scantily Clad Stars, Who Could Ask for More?

Hotel LaChapelle is David LaChapelle’s sequel to his first boxed book of photography, LaChapelle Land. This hard cover coffee table book features such famous faces as Leonardo DiCaprio, Lil’ Kim, Elton John, Madonna, Marky Mark, Anna Kournikova, Marilyn Manson, Cameron Diaz, Pamela Anderson, and Rose McGowan, just to name a few. This book features a picture of Britney Spears being, just like she insists, “not that innocent.” In fact, most of the pictures featured in this book are very sexual and taboo. Only in a bizarro world of David LaChapelle could Marilyn Manson be portrayed as Jesus and his blushing bride Rose McGowan as the Virgin Mary. In a picture called “Addicted to Diamonds,” LaChapelle has his favorite cross-dresser, Amanda Lepore, snorting diamonds off of mirror as if they were cocaine. When asked by CNN correspondent, Michael Okwu, why he named the book Hotel LaChapelle, LaChapelle responded “Hotels are kinda sexy right?” and that is just what this book is.

LaChapelle’s photos are full of vibrant colors and subtle little details that make the photos even more interesting than just the shock of the main subject. Another thing LaChapelle’s photos are known for is the excessive amount of work that goes into making them. Everything in every photo is intricately planned out from the person being photographed, the colors included in the background, costumes, make up, and much more. LaChapelle creates his own little world for each photo shoot. In one photo of Lil’ Kim, her clothes are white, the background is white, and she is even holding a white rose so your eye is automatically pulled to the crotch of her panties which are covered in blood. The picture “Saints and Sinners,” is featured on the box that the book comes in. It shows the Hotel LaChapelle with one floor full of scantily clad women breaking the foundation of the hotel to the point where it seems that the building may soon cave in on the saintly woman in the room just below them.

I suggest this book to anyone and everyone. It makes quite the conversation piece on top of the initial beauty of the pictures. I have pictures from this book hanging up everywhere in my room and on my computer desktop. Due to the sexual content it is not really appropriate for children, but it really isn’t that bad when you think of it just as art (which is what I told my mom so she would buy me this book for Christmas. If you are into learning more about the artist, there is a wonderful commentary by LaChapelle in the back of the book.