David LaChapelle: Jesus is my Homeboy

From the earliest depictions of Jesus artists have placed him in their own contemporary settings. This is obvious in many of the paintings of Jesus during the Renaissance. Artists have a tendency to place Jesus in their own time and place, sometimes in provocative ways.

I view sermon writing as an art form crafted with words. In a sermon at a church where I was pastor back in the 90s I painted a word picture of the "immoral" woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears as wearing a tight mini skirt and stilletto heels. I remember some members being upset by this visual image and letting me know! Well, when I came upon David La Chapelle's depiction of the woman washing Jesus' feet, she has a tight mini skirt and stilletto heels!

Modern photographer David La Chapelle does what other artists have done for centuries in his series Jesus is my Homeboy. These blown up photographs depict Jesus on the gritty urban streets and in the 'hood among the homeboys. Except for the white-looking-Jesus-guy, La Chapelle's images are provocative and maybe can jar our minds into rethinking Jesus and his message for our time.

The video is of an exhibit of La Chapelle's series in a Protestant French Church in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The exhibition was part of the St. Moritz Art Masters‘ “Walk of Art”.