Amanda Lepore "is the Zona Rosa," David LaChapelle says in my interview with him, found right now in the April-May issue of the Mexico City fashion, arts, and design magazine 192.
She's "such a perfect example of self-creation," LaChapelle adds. "People will say, 'Oh, I reinvented my career.' ... Well, yeah, but you kinda look the same. But here's someone who was born a boy named Armand and mistreated and abused as a kid, who is now like this glamorous sex symbol. So there's something very transcendent about that."
I met with LaChapelle while he was in town for the opening of an exhibit of his work at San Ildefonso. He says in the Q&A, published in Spanish, that his recent "mural" series are "more understood" in Mexico because of its heritage of muralism, and that since he works mostly in Los Angeles, Latin American style and culture has always influenced him.
Earlier in the issue, I wrote an appreciation in Spanish on author Roberto Bolaño (see previous posts here and here). An excerpt:
Bolaño, en su vida y en su obra, estaba obsesionado con las historias, las tempestades, y las fallas de otros escritores. Los cuentos de Bolaño crecen siempre de la perspectiva de poetas o lectores apasionados de la literatura –- y casi siempre estos son jóvenes, idealistas, distraídos, y en caminos trágicos y quijotescos. Desde Amuleto, novela que trata de una jóven poeta escondida en un baño en la UNAM durante el tome militar del campus en 1968, hasta 2666 y Los detectives salvajes, que narra la historia de una banda de poetas rebeldes que inician un viaje, tambien hacia el Norte, para descubrir el destino de una poeta que desaparecio misteriosamente cerca de la frontera.
192 is setting a high standard for new fashion editorial in Mexico. If this issue is still out there, there is also an interview with Diane Pernet; a conversation between artists Miguel Calderón and Abraham Cruzvillegas, and collector César Cervantes; and a fashion shoot by César Arellano, with styling by Denise Marchebout and Lizza Freer, and assisting by Uriel Urban.
* BOOK NOTE: My Gatopardo crónica on the 2008 emo riots is included in the anthology "Crónicas de otro planeta," or 'Tales from Another Planet,' the third collection of the best stories in the magazine, covering the recent years.
The book is compiled and edited by Guillermo Osorno and includes pieces by Laura Castellanos, Salvador Frausto Crotte, David Lida, and Fabrizio Mejía Madrid. It's an honor to see my work included in such company.