It was Andy Warhol who offered David LaChapelle his first professional assignment as a photographer for “Interview Magazine”. From that moment on, it was a constant progression of covers, services and magazines. The first book, entitled “LaChapelle Land”, allowed the world to discover the iconic, pop and surreal style of one of the contemporary masters of the image: very bright colors, sometimes dreamlike and sometimes strange representations, immediately recognizable Hawaiian atmospheres.
David LaChapelle is the “special star” of RUFA Contest 2019 that will take place on Wednesday, June 5 at the Brancaccio Theatre at 7 pm, in Via Merulana in Rome. He is also the president of the jury called to determine the best of the projects in which the students of the Rome University of Fine Arts have worked for months and months, passing selections on selections and confronting the members of the evaluation committee, led by RUFA director Fabio Mongelli and the creator of the contest Emanuele Cappelli. The theme of the contest? “La Divina estetica” (The Divine Aesthetic): to restore the most authentic meaning to words and to decline the substance with form.
There are many appointments on the calendar: not only the event scheduled at the Brancaccio Theatre. David LaChapelle, in fact, will also be present at the Masterclass to be held at RUFA Pastificio Cerere, so as to get in touch with the artistic production, in an ideal line of junction with previous editions that have enjoyed the presence of Stefan Sagmeister in 2015, Karim Rashid in 2016, Francis Kéré in 2017 and Shirin Neshat in 2018.
The RUFA Contest is therefore ready to combine “the kaleidoscopic expressions of the intellect, new media and languages” in the most varied forms, perfectly fitting into the study paths that the Academy of Fine Arts, legally recognized by the Miur, is now able to guarantee, exactly twenty years after its foundation. A result that is achieved thanks to the work of a staff “power oriented” able to make a difference, but also with the support of leading companies and suppliers: Laser Emotion’s, LEM International, Tipografare, Apa Affissioni, Sci, MBanga studio, Europroduzione e Cappelli Identity Design.
