The Marble Statue Experiment
We had an idea for some implied nude photography that we wanted to try out in the studio.
Previously we’ve done some bodypainting shoots and this would turn out very similar, but instead of paint, we used bright hobby clay. The poses are both inspired by statues and just concealing / revealing identity or skin.
The inspiration came from ancient greek statues and some portraits we had seen other photographers share, but we didn’t aim to recreate anything specific, but just played around with poses inside the idea boundary. The only prop we really had was a white piece of cloth that we picked up at the same store where we also got the clay. It wasn’t very big, but folded well to vaguely resemble a toga.
The drying clay turned the skin pretty stiff and added an interesting and messy layer to the subjects. We sped up the process by drying the clay with a hair dryer, which worked wonderfully!
We used a ring-light for lighting each other and either shot through or around the light with an 85mm between f1.4 and f2.5 for a shallow depth of field.
The skin tones were an interesting contrast to the very bright clay and allowed us to gain lots of contrast and a chrome like look on some of the skin compared to the matte clay.
With the dark background, the shapes and curves of the subjects body stand out, even in the tighter crops, which we found interesting. The shadows eat away at the characters and draw attention to the negative space of the background.
Both the high contrast and the constant light source helped us compose the shots without having to worry about flashes or making sure the background was underexposed enought for our liking.
The process of applying the clay was a little bit more difficult than with paint, as we dissolved it with water and then had to smudge it around a fair bit before drying.
We’re considering to try this again and create a more even look by adding more layers of clay to make the look less messy.
This was a lot of experimentation and we just took one quick test of Jonathan’s hands the day before to confirm that it would look approximately how we thought it would.
The process wasn’t too messy and the clay washed off of surfaces and clothes well as well, that’s definitely a point for clay over the acrylic paint 😀
If you want us to turn into a statue and you live around Copenhagen, shoot us a message! We’d love to experiment more with the style!
