David LaChapelle's New Roll

The name David LaChapelle may be synonymous with celebrity portraiture (he’s shot everyone from Lady Gaga to Hillary Rodham Clinton during his 30-year career), but, as the 47-year-old photographer proudly notes, his surname, French for “the chapel,” is Huguenot in origin. “It’s literally in my blood to question the church,” he says.

LaChapelle does exactly that in his latest exhibit, which opens today at Chelsea’s Paul Kasmin Gallery. Titled “American Jesus,” the show casts LaChapelle’s longtime friend Michael Jackson, shot just before his death last year in a series of iconic Biblical scenes. Another one of the photographer’s controversial pals, Naomi Campbell, makes a cameo as Botticelli’s Venus.