David LaChapelle was asked by Kurt Mutchler, the Executive Editor of Photography for National Geographic Magazine, to be the keynote presenter at this year’s National Geographic Photography Seminar. LaChapelle closed the seminar with a presentation of his photo entitled “The Rape of Africa,” which was inspired by the January 2009 Geographic story “The Real Price of Gold” about the environmental and human costs of gold mining in Africa.

In her recent entry “An Ode to the National Geographic Collagist” for The Photo Society, Kitra Cahana mused about LaChapelle’s presentation, “David LaChapelle (who, for those who haven’t met him in person, is a treat of a human being) presented his epic tableau, Rape of Africa. He revealed the sketches and collages, which led up to the making of this image, unmasking his alluring inner process. Much to the surprise of the audience, his image was not only inspired by Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, but by Randy Olson’s January 2009 NGM cover story, The Real Price of Gold, which addressed the environmental and human costs of gold mining in Africa. It was so powerful to see influence laid so bare, to witness a kernel of a human thought traced from one artist to another, from one artifact to the next. To me, this was the peak moment of the seminar; when fragments in the universe collide and give birth to a new text.”

National Geographic magazine’s Photo Seminar was held on January 12-13, 2012.

The Photo Society

National Geographic Magazine