David LaChapelle: Artist talk
Conversation led by Wojciech Piotr Onak

I hosted an intimate Artist Talk with David LaChapelle at Pop Culture Gallery in Poznań — a rare and deeply personal conversation with one of the most influential photographers of our time. The setting, surrounded by his works yet separate from the exhibition’s formal structure, allowed the discussion to unfold with unusual openness and emotional clarity.

Our dialogue centred on themes that have shaped LaChapelle’s life and artistic evolution: spirituality, impermanence, attachment, the courage to step away, and the discipline of returning only when the inner rhythm is right. LaChapelle spoke about the moment he chose to leave Los Angeles, the noise of fame, and the machinery of the image world. He described the need to pause, to breathe, to recognise the difference between momentum and meaning.

We talked about transience — the fleeting nature of both success and suffering — and about the fragile space between holding on and letting go. LaChapelle reflected on moments when life demands stillness rather than acceleration, when clarity appears not through action but through silence. These ideas illuminated the emotional and spiritual dimension of his later work, where theatrical excess meets contemplation and symbolic restraint.

The conversation also touched on return: how an artist re-enters the world after withdrawal, how creative direction shifts when it is no longer driven by expectation, and how renewal can become a form of artistic rebirth. The audience witnessed a rare encounter with LaChapelle as a thinker shaped by faith, introspection, and the desire to reconnect with what is essential.

The Artist Talk became one of the defining moments of his presence in Poznań — a space where art, biography, and spiritual clarity met in real time.
It offered a portrait of LaChapelle far beyond the familiar image-maker: reflective, vulnerable, searching, and profoundly human.