FRENCH PHOTO - ISSUE 457 - MARCH 2009 : TEXTS IN ENGLISH - INCOMPLETED

N457 SPECIAL DAVID LACHAPELLE

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HIS LIFE
My mom once showed me a pictorial from Playboy of Ursula Andress naked under a waterfall and said that is what a womans body should look like. And i Have to say my moms did. She ate health food and worked out religiously in the family room way before it was fashionable. Men would hound her on the street or at the small. She would laugh and think it was funny. Sexiness with humor : those things are normal for me. I took my very first photograph in Puerto Rico on vacation with my parents. My mother made a bikini out of a Fredericks of Hollywood bra top and gold belt buckles. We were in this brand-new 1970s hotel. She set up the shot. She put an astray on the carpet to mark the spot where i should stand. She posed ; I pushed the button. I still love that photo. I think i was around six or seven. Family photos were a huge production. My mom would direct the scenarios and meticulously style all the outfits. For my baby photographs, she posed me as en angel. She made paper angel wings really detailed ones with indivudual paper feathers. As i got older, the photo sessions got more ambitious. My mom would style outfits for the entire family so we looked like something

out of The Sound of Music. And we would go to old estates and country clubs around Connecticut posing with other peoples cars and sheep dogs. She has thousands of photos in albums, all of this and take one click of the camera and thay came out great. I think of all the film i go through and i feel a little amateurish by comparison. Then we moved to North Carolina. I twas a shock : subdivisions and fast-food places went up overnight. There were wild divorcees with bubble bouffants and long lashes. Nothing like Connecticut. One we were playing kickball in the apartment complex parking lot when this woman came downstairs with a giant hairdo, halter top, hot pants, cork platform wedgies, and started smashing her husbands new Lincoln with a hammer. We were mesmerized. Seeing her on all fours, screaming, crawling on that car and bashing it, with that outfit, that hair, those fingernails well, i twas a little bit of heaven. Ill never forget it. I love drama and outrageousness. I love crazy scenes. Always have. In North Carolin ait was harder for my mom to find all the beautiful places to shoot : its all about strip smalls there. No more ye olde New England backdrops ; she hated it. So she got more creative. She shot pictures of my brother and me that look like we are still in Connecticut at some Mystic Seaport setting with weathered planks, docks, and pllars. Actually, we were at a Long John Silvers, a fast food-fish restaurant, at the shopping center in the middle of a parking

lot, but because of the cropping, no one would ever know. We were a middle-class suburban family living in a hideous North Carolina apartment complex ; I was a pot-smoking teenage disaster. In the family albums we look like Vanderbilts. My mom remade her reality through snapshots. Maybe thats were i got the idea to make up fantasies in photographs. There were moments of fun, but for the most part i was tormented in school because i was freak. I would daydream all day about being in New York. I was sure that i would be a painter or an illustrator, but the moment i picked up a camera and found out that my friends would do anything to be in a photo, i knew what id spend my life doing. By the end of my first roll of film, all my misfit firends were naked in my room, posing like mad. I left home in 1978, when i was 15, and came to New York City. I lived at the 23rd Street YMCA, and then with a friend in the East Village. I tried to get a job at Fiorucci, but i was too young. I started workingas a busboy at studio 54. Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci clams on the halfshell and rollerskates that time had a big influence on my pictures. All that pop imagery. At studio, a moon would come down from the ceiling, with a spoon that went to its nose, and then it would start snowing. A giant heart plugged into a giant socket would swing fown on special nights and everyone seemed beautiful, and people got dressed up, and

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women wore makeup, and the music then was happy, happy, happy. I had fun but i decides to finish high school. I somehow got accepted by North Carolina School of the Arts. When i came back to New York i was 18 and i wanted to just start working. The first place i went was Interview magazine because id met Andy Warhol at a Psychedelic Furs concert at the Ritz. I was in a ridiculous New Romantic outfit : pirate pants, a sash on my head. Hed said, Oh, come by, show me your photographs. I went there with the photos of my naked high school friends and he said they were great. I was thrilled. (Later i learned that he could look at a cookie and say, its great. ) So Interview was the first magazine to publish my work. I twas Marc Balet, the art director who eventually hired me. I worked for them consistently over the next seceral years. I learned a lot at Interview : it was like art school for me. I would go to the offices almost every dat to eat the leftovers form the extravagant buffet lunches. They were very good to me. Being in that environment you would always hear Andys philosophy about the magazine. Everyone had to look beatiful in Interview, and that really made an impression on me. No matter whom i photograph I may get them doing the wildest thing, but i want them to look beautiful. My rst assignment was a disaster. It was a Country-Western star. She was expecting a glamorous New York photo shoot, but ended up on the roof of my East Village hovel instead. We had to climb out the window to get to the re escape to get on the roof. The reflector boards made her eyes tear which i throught was great, because the title of her album was When I Cry. The hairdresser sculpted a huge, hideous palm tree nightmare. I was too intimidates to object. So i just cropped it out later. Her silver Stephen Sprouse thigh-high boots sank into the hot tar. She was stuck. We had to pull her out. Then she had a real breakdown. The boots were ruined ; i thought i was too. I also worked at Pucci Manikins painting mannequin faces with oil plant. Training took three months. Every day we would get blanck cast heads of the big models of the day : Iman, Sarah Capp , Kelly Emberg. I painted those models faces every day, all day, ove rand over : eyebrows, eyeballs, lips. Everyone who worked there painting faces and doing mannequin hairdos was a fashion casualty. They had all worked in the businessOne hairstylist left the business because she cut a models earlobe off when she was high during a shoot. She prefered mannequins : they dont complain or bleed. I never expected to make money when i started taking pictures, i remember really well praying to make just enough to pay my bills. I dont take anything for granted now, either. Being in New York for 16 years, ive seen people come and go, just burst on the scene and disappear. But if i nerver got hired again, i would still take photos. If theres en exhibitionnist left who wants his or her picture taken, ill be there. I never really had any kind of mentor. Getting started for me in New York meant going to nighclubs, galleries, and darkrooms. I spent a lot of time on my own printing, looking at pictures, reading Andy Warhol books, and stuff like that. Ive always loved magazines and movie stars and pop art and fashion. Thats what i come from. For me, taking photographs, planning them and working on them, is a big escape. Just as what the pictures depict is an escape from whats really going on in the world. Im thankful to be able to do this really creative thing to think of some wild fantasy and make it happen and get it published. When i first started doing these photographs, i wanted to see color, and glamour i want my pictures to be a break from reality, because i know that living in this time is really difficult. The are so many things going on that are sad, so that when youre flipping trhough a magazine id like my pictures to be a small intermission, a break of beauty. I think that anyone can be beautiful in some way. Or they can be funny. Funny is beautiful. John Beluschi was beautiful because he was so funny. Ive lived in the East Village on and off since i was 15. I lived in an apartement with no electricity or telephone fort too long. I envied the squatters next door : at least they didnt pay rent for their hellholes. I certainly dont want to go there again, even in a photo. Ive had so many friends OD on heroin, die of AIDS, commit suicide, and have myself dealt with so much stuff, that i dont want to see a bunch of depressed 18-years olds sitting around in expensive clothes looking like theyre about to drop. In the midEighties everyone started wearing black and they kept on wearing blakc. Its like weve been in mourning for ten years. And in a way, we have seen. Ive been really fortunate with the magazines ive been working for : Details, Vogue, The Face, Vanity Fair. Details was the first magazine that gave me the chance to take the king of pictures i had always dreamed og taking. Lately, tje magazines have allowed me to go completely cray, to do whatever i want to do. A lot of people think its all done on the computer, but its not. Im a photographer, not a computer person. In fact, its sort of important to me that these scenarios existed somewhere, for some period of time, even if it was only for an hour. Its more fun to photograph something real than to do it on a computer. Tom Jones hanging off a truck in a pink cat suit alongside a highway in Detroit (p.63): he was really there, hanging off that truck. That girl in balloons was really in Times Square (p.33). She was freezing cold and we didnt have a permit and we blocked trafc, but it was much more fun to shoot than if it had been a composite, which a lot of people thought it was. Lili Taylor really sat on a giant mushroom and drank a milkdshake. Thats the great part: at the end of the day, when everyones laughing and we cant believe that we got this picture. And we cant believe that this our job, this is what we actually get paid to do. I get maniacal about the details. The night before the Lili Taylor shoot (p.99) I was looking for a milkshake container. I actually had a bag full of them, but I knew that I didnt have the right one. After all the stores closed, at 1 a.m., I started digging through garbage cans on Avenue A in the pouring rain. Then I saw somebody that I sort of know, and as he walked by I was about to say hi and explain what I was doing, but he pretended not to see me and from the look on his face I imagined him thinking, Oh, last week hes a photographer doing really well, and this week hes digging through garbage cans, looking for a tidbit to nibble on, which is totally possible in New York. I ended up finding the perfect red-and-white striped cup at the Gem Spa. People say I should make movies because my pictures remind them of film stills. I like to think of them like that. Or as stories. Someone told me that my pictures are like pressing the pause button on the VCR. It bores me to photograph in a studio against white paper. I like to invent scenes. I have a hard time looking at new photos that are copies of old ones. To me, its lazy to open an Avedon book and copy whats in it. Why not come up with new ideas ? When someone comes in to be photographed, Im not so interested in capturing their soul through their eyes. Im more interested in what theyre wearing, how they have their hair done. I think you can learn more about a person from the way theyve pulled their outfit together than by looking at a black-and-white photograph of their eyeballs staring at the camera. There is a tradition of celebrity portraiture that attempts to uncover the real person behind the trappings of their celebrity ; Im more interested in those trappings. I think people look intelligent when they have a sense of humor about themselves and their images, so I try to bring that out. Tori Spelling, for instance, sitting in a limousine with garbage on the oor (p.68). I wanted to play on the idea a lot of people had of her at the time. And because she went along with it, she wound up looking like she had a sense of humor about herself. But I also tried to make her look as sexy as possible.

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The American trash culture pictures came out of a time when I was guetting really depressed, because I love nature and it was getting hard to find. When I go on vacation, I want to go to the woods. But it got to the point where anywhere Id go, all Id ever see were fast-food jionts, strip malls, industrial parks. So I just decided to start finding things to like about them. And now Im not bothered by looking at places like McDonalds. I see them and think, Oh, I could do a photo here. Theyre colorful, and bright. . . . Truman Capote said that good taste is the death of art. Fashion and advertising photography has always been about good taste, about picturing the good life. I want to see whats been cut out, I want to feature those things. Its about photographing whats on the way to the beautiful location, on the drive there. Photographers are always running away to exotic places to do fashion photographs in nature, but theyre always artificial staged to look natural. You take a bus to the jungle, and you get off at the tour spot and have a snack and buy camera batteries and get on the monorail and look through Plexiglas. Id rather celebrate the artificial. Why not just go into the middle of whats all around us and try to find the beauty there. In fact, not just find the beauty, but make it beautiful. Enhance it. Change the way you look at it. When you take a picture of something, you change the way its seen. We get excited now when we see Golden Arches and parking lots that stretch to the horizon. In Brazil, the Far East, wherever you go you see the same things. I dont endorse them. I dont even eat at them. But theyre everywhere, theyve replaced the forest. When I was a kid, my parents said I was going to be a bum. I worked at Burger Kings, and Kentucky Fried Chickens ; and I would get fired from all those places. Now I take pictures of them. I have to find something I like about a person in order to photograph them. I heard a hooker say once on a talk show, Well, I just focus on something I like about them, even if its their shoes. I think to myself, Oh, they have really nice shoes. And then I can have sex with them. You know what I mean ? Even if somebodys not very nice, Ill try to find something about them that I like, even if its only their nail polish. Im not trying to trick or make fun of anybody. I respect the people I photograph. When I first talked to Faye Dunaway, she said, Im not familiar with your work. Tell me what the ideas are. I said I wanted her in a ripped negligee holding her boob looking at the camera in a trashed apartment (p.91). She loved it. Then I told her, The first shot is going to be of you and the second is going to be about you. The one about her is on top of a limousine, like in The Day of the Locust, surrounded by rioting fans (p.2). Shes the last Hollywood legend, the last big star. Faye loved this shoot because she was not only able to look beautiful but was able to put some emotion and energy into the picture. Shes an actress ; she was allowed to act. At one point she said, Do you want tears ? so I offered to get the makeup artist and Faye said, No, darling, Im an actress. I have my own tears. She threw back her head. . . she was weeping. Exhibitionists make the best models. Someone who will give anything for the camera, do anything that you ask. I love models who are hungry for fame or food or whatever. Shoots can be hard. Those people in the Plexiglas box : they were there in a Plexiglas box, naked, piled on top of each other (p.104). They werent comfortable, but they look comfortable. And thats what matters in the end. My pictures are about getting people to go along with me on a ride, a trip. Getting a celebrity or a model to take off all their clothes, to wear a chicken suit, be wild, to go against what their publicist recommends. Theres something great about it. I try to make pictures Ive never seen before. I read somewhere that a photographer, I think it was Hiro, said to an assistant, If you look through the camera and youve seen it before, dont take the picture. The French hate Disney World, so the first place I wanted to shoot in France for Paris Vogue was Euro Disney (p.98). Using what people think is ugly and making it beautiful, to me thats the kick. Inspiration can come from so many places, but my main source is my friends, hanging out with them, talking and laughing, saying What if we did - ? Then coming up with the wildest thing we can think of, maybe even the most hideous thing we can think of, and reclaiming it, redeeming it as something beautiful. From then on it will be seen differently. And it isnt about depicting violence and bloodshed and murder. Those things arent extreme anymore. Theyre banal as photographs, and too much like reality. I think its better to make beauty these days than to represent the ugly. When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time alone (not by choice) ; I always wanted a group of friends. I wanted it to be like Our Gang you know, putting on a show in the backyard. Now I have that. I have a group of people I work with. Theyre really talented, and were friends. I work with them again and again. Its not like work. Its fun. When someone comes in for the day to be photographed, they feel it too. I put a ton of energy into the concept for each shoot, so whether Im shooting Faye Dunaway, or an unknown cable porn star like Kitty G. (pp.74-75), they can sense that Im sincere about trying to take a great photo. You can take a picture of a porno TV host that people will remember. Thats my goal : to get the pictures torn out of the magazine and up on the refrigerator. Ive always thought of the magazine as the gallery and the refrigerator as the museum. If my picture makes it to someones fridge, Im really happy. LaChapelle Land, Callaway.

HELGA AND SONJA LACHAPELLE

DAVIDS MOM AND SISTER
Mom and I really have very little to say other than David is very much loved as son and brother. His heart is large with love and generosity. Even as a child he was very generous with his love, towards his family, friends, little animals. Once he had a pet snail whose shell was cracked and he put a band aid on it to help heal the crack shell. He's a brother and son first and an artist second in our lives. We love him. Written for Photo, february 2009.

KUMI GENA TANIMURA

I came from Japan hoping to experience an Internship with David LaChapelle, he accepted me and kept me over 6 years, David is amazing- he works 24-7 non stop. With his busy and packed schedule, he is available and ready to work no matter how tired he is after big shoots. He is involved in any aspect of small or big jobs and he knows every little details of everything that goes on in the office to the studio. I always wonder where all the information gets stored in his mind, and also where his creative intuition and ideas come out. I am still learning something new. Its a big challenge and fun to be with LaChapelle. Big smile and happiness. Written for Photo, february 2009.

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STARS
PAMELA ANDERSON
MUSE/FRIEND
In the overheated world of show business, the words unique and genius are thrown around with such abandon that I usually skirt them acidulously. Yet when I try to explain or describe my dear friend Dave LaChapelle, such expressions are wholly unavoidable. He is a man of such extraordinary creative energy, such powerful vision and such artistic determination in the pursuit of beauty, humour, irony, relevance and just plain fun that I know of no equal. His work is always entertaining and inspiring and often provokes a real epiphany et je lui aime! Nous sommes bien sr des meilleurs copains mais de temps en temps cest vrais que nous faisons des sottises ensemble! Written for Photo, february 2009.

CHAD FARMER
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND PRESIDENT, LAMBESIS
The first time David and I worked together was in his studio in the village in NY about a decade ago. We were having coffee with Amanda Lapore and Richie Rich, while discussing iconic 70's french magazine covers, we hung out in a room of boob covered walls ...as well as many other rooms. ...and then the cops came running through the studio chasing somebody... needless to say, we hit it off instantly and have worked together on many projects ever since. Written for Photo, february 2009.

JAMI GLASSMAN
DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE SERVICES, LAMBESIS
David is one of the most inspiring, visionary artists of our time. He loves beauty in a way so different from the conventional standards; his work really makes you stop to think about the meaning of what you see and how you see it. And of course his studio is just like his photos crazy loud music blasting, murals on the walls, and people you love to hang out with.

GARRET SUHRIE
MANAGER, DAVID LACHAPELLE STUDIO (L.A.)
Throughout his exhaustive career, David LaChapelle has created more than just a name for himself, he's created a brand, a culture. While the world may think they know the LaChapelle style and aesthetic, he's constantly reinventing himself, as any true artist is, always evolving. He has pushed the limits of commentary using fashion and celebrity as his platform, and is now getting back to his roots, back to the galleries and museum. With his unbridled enthusiasm and uninhibited creativity, there are exciting times to come in LaChapelle Land! Written for Photo, february 2009.

JOHN SCHOENFELD
David is a very aware person constantly absorbing the details of life, digesting his experiences and pouring that unique perspective through his own creative lens. For me, its great to have the opportunity to participate and contribute to Davids creative process. I hope he has as much fun as I do. There is a tremendous amount of thought that David puts into his work prior to the shoot, but to me what is impressive is how he operates once he begins shooting. This is when he refines the idea, giving the work its dynamic layers. He is inspired and direct. Written for Photo, february 2009.

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JEFFREY KEYTON
MTV NETWORKS
Few artist have inspired me the way David has. His unbridled creativity is contagious, his passion deep and wise. And I will never forget when he picked me up once when I was creatively down with the gift of his creative light, heart and soul. Written for Photo, february 2009.

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JESUS

STEVEN PRANICA
INTERNATIONAL AGENT/MANAGER
Provocative, Controversial, Prolific, Seductive... these are a few of the words that define LaChapelle's artistic style and also my 14 year friendship and business relationship with David as his international agent. As one of contemporary art's foremost innovators, LaChapelle has continuously exhibited the rare ability to analyze, translate, and record all facets of pop culture. In encompassing a protean range of mediums; his visuals embrace the fantasy of indulgence and escape while satisfying the viewer's insatiable appetite for aesthetically significant work with intricately woven and ironic, yet incisive commentary reflecting the undertone of present day events. His relentless mappings of the cultural landscape at the heart of our society has generated a compelling anatomy of the pop culture psyche, allowing us to view our most pervasive cultural narratives with new clarity. Whether he is exploring magnetic icons of mainstream media or probing the subcultural margins, LaChapelle's contribution to the continuing dialogue of art has transcended and redefined the existing creative process for a new generation of artists; in turn elevating his legacy into a pop icon.

PATRICK TOOLAN
MANAGER, DAVID LACHAPELLE CREATIVE PLANNING
"The is a certain magic that surrounds a David LaChapelle photo shoot. As one can see from the final products, the fantastic scenes are alive during these shoots. David creates his fantasies and then he photographs them. One can really feel the beauty that is being made because everything the public sees in the print is truly happening right before your eyes."

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ART
TONI SHAFRAZI
TONI SHAFRAZI GALLERY, NEW YORK
One late night many years ago, I think it was 93, I got a very excited phone call from Naomi Campbell, impatiently urging me to rush down to the studio of David LaChapelle, telling me that he was a great artist whose work I would absolutely love, and that I had to get down there immediately. So at Naomis urging I put on some clothes and went to the studio, where I found them in the middle of a big photo shootand walked right into the fantastic world of David LaChapelle. Even then at first sight, that world of almost guerrilla and somewhat subversive independent picture making felt familiar and close to me, as I had some small experience myself in making pictures back in 1974. As it turned out some years before, in the mid-80s when David was a young boy, he had often come to my gallery and loved the exhibitions, especially the art and sprit of Keith Haring, as well as Andy Warhol, whom he started to work with. Soon after my visit we began work together. What is most striking and clearly visible in Davids work is the tremendous level of ex-

citement of every picture. Its as if the models, whether movie stars or common people, characters and their environments are infused with hyper-excitement. It is also very apparent that he is a brilliant colorist which he uses freely to amplify his images. The model, the set, juxtaposition, the action, the humor and color are all pumped up, like in the best of pop music when everything is well orchestrated, all these elements working together are brought to a very high level, elevating the idea to a very high pitch until the picturelike great rock and rollsounds and looks out of this world. In his more recent work, like the Deluge and Awakened series, people are presented in some ghostly ephemeral place, in a moment of being awakened when one has a kind of epiphanykind of half way between heaven and hell. Apparently when Quentin Tarantino had to have his portrait done, he specifically asked David that he be submerged like in the Awakened series. It is amazing that such a great director with tremendous energy and creativity would request this particular image and experience, as if to be anointed, like a ritual that he wanted to be a part of. David has said in his interviews that, the tank of water was very much like a big baptismal. The experience was like being photographed like babies under water. The water was warmed and there was this idea of rebirth, of the tunnel

that we hear about when we die, walking towards the light. This submersion in the water in order to express this light, its like the submersion becomes a baptism, it becomes an anointing. Having for many years covered the whole world of pop culture, the world of design, fashion and consumerism, the obsession with beautyfamevanity and temptationcatastrophe and death, what his pictures convey is a tremendous sense of innocence. Theres always a kind of optimism, a complete lack of nihilismtheres no major sense of cynicism or bitterness. Instead his pictures represent an abundant feeling of enthusiasm. What always comes across is a most devoted love and passion for creativity and imaginative playfulness. New York, February 12th, 2009

IN BED WITH LACHAPELLE

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MODE
VICTORIA FRAZIER
HBO NETWORKS
I love David LaChapelle! Entering the studio I just cant wait to see David. I cant wait to see what he will be wearing, what he will say, watch him dance, laugh and work. I feel like a child in his presence and always want more. And there always is more. You turn the corner and there is yet another unbelievable set that David created the night before that is so fabulous you think you are dreaming. Even the art director couldnt think this one up and we all begin to laugh really hard. And we all dance to the music. It is simply amazing and so much fun. I dont want the day to end but it does and David gives me a hug. I must go back for more because I feel so alive and so loved. Expressing oneself is an art. David is fearless with his expressions, his love and I can touch it it is all real. My favorite shoot is the fifteen foot tall silver sea serpent David had built and put in the ocean with our celeb riding it in the waves. They could have been electrocuted but nothing stops David from getting the shot! I love you David!

BERNIE HOGYA
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, LOWE NY
I once heard the expression that an idea is like a snowball passed among warm hands. Therefore, when you have a great idea, it is imperative that you do everything you can to make sure that it is executed as great as it can possibly be. To that aim, I have always believed that the best path to success is to hire the best talent in the world. It is why I find myself time and time again relying on Davids immense talents. The Got milk? celebrity milk mustache campaign was my idea. It was a big idea that over the years has not only successfully sold milk but remains one of the most popular, iconic print advertising campaigns in America. There are a lot of accomplished photographers who specialize in celebrity portraits. But there is only one David LaChapelle. He is an original. A visionary. A one-of-a-kind. Creative people tend to think of advertising as an art form, but it is mostly a commercial endeavor. It is a business. Theres a product to sell, a strategy to execute and a clients needs to satisfy. David does it all, and along the way manages to bring imagination, artistry and an incredible I dare you to turn the page appeal to everything he does. His pictures burn in your memory. They start where everything else stops. His eye candy art direction, vivid color vocabulary, keen design 9

sense and acute understanding of what makes something great are what separate him from every other photographer in the world. It is a great honor of mine to have worked with David LaChapelle, and I cant wait until our next project together.

INGRID BARAJAS
"More than a world of colors and fascinating addictive photography, David LaChapelle's work is inspiring to generations, proving that art is not just in all of us, but for all of us" "LaChapelle's photographs delight us with a colorful and insightful contemporary interpretation filled with pop art that seldom few ever accomplish given the sensitive and meaningful intelligence his artistical images entail."

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VICTOR VELEZ
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, NYC
For most of my career, no one has been more of a driving force than David Lachapelle and to collaborate with him, for any artist, is a dream come true. It was certainly mine. To glimpse into the mind of this modern day genius is to find a world where the likes of Caravaggio and Vermeer collide to create a world beyond reality and beauty, where art meets modern culture. He will undoubtedly continue to influence all of us for many years to come. Thank you David for letting us experience the world through your incredible vision.

NORA SALVAGGIO
REMY COINTREAU
'David exceeded our expectations during the development of Remy Martin VSOP's first limited edition. Not only did he capture our brand's essence and energy with a stunning RBG image - he worked with us to ensure that the final limited edition bottle and gift box were gorgeous. David remained involved throughout the development process, regularly contributing his point of view and assisting us in making judgement calls. For example we experienced real challenges when adapting the original RBG image to create the bottle sleeve. It was impossible to reproduce the desired skin tones without affecting the blue hues in the surrounding foliage. When we approached David with this issue - he asked to see the prototypes. After studying these carefully, he explained that it was acceptable to have slight color variances so long as we delivered a truly beautiful bottle. Working with David is a pleasure; he is incredibly talented, original, inspired, exacting, committed, humble and hilarious.

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