"The celebrity photographer and artist David LaChapelle had always wanted to take a portrait of Michael Jackson, and nearly did: several shoots were lined up and cancelled as Jackson grew increasingly wary. “Photographers weren’t nice to him,” says LaChapelle. “He got scared.” After Jackson’s death LaChapelle decided to pay tribute, photographing a young lookalike in Hawaii, just outside his own home: a 25-acre ranch on the coast, three hours from the nearest shop. He moved there three years ago, turning his back on lucrative contracts with Vanity Fair, Italian Vogue and Rolling Stone. The “devil” in red is a friend who performs in the Cirque du Soleil. The image forms part of a trilogy inspired by Mexican saint cards. LaChapelle is convinced that Jackson was innocent of paedophilia.
“I don’t think he was capable of hurting anyone,” he says. “I think there’s something really biblical about what happened. His lyrics are so naive and so beautiful. It’s one of the most epic stories of our time, to go from such heights to such depths. He’s a modern-day martyr.
