Living Art

woman painted in gold with black swirls with a gold cape

Remember a few days ago when I posted my Flamenco shoot?  And I said that it was really my first foray into shooting models?  Yeah, apparently I was smoking something when I wrote that.  I was digging back through photos and found this folder of shots from August of last year.  ???  Yeah, I don’t know.  You’d think that my memory would be better than that.  Anywho…back in August of last year, Eric and I went with the photo club to the Brooklyn Jazz Café to shoot the body painting event they were having.

woman with a large feather headdress painted with white and gold swirls

It was a little difficult getting the right settings for this shoot since we were on location, in a bar, with some less than perfect lighting.  Looks good in person, but harder to capture an image.

woman wearing a black masquerade mask painted in red and gold designs

But with Eric’s help, I finally got my settings figured out and think I got some good shots.  All of the body painting was really interesting, very well done.

woman with her back painted to look like a cello with a blue and black swirl background
woman wearing a top hat painted in a grey blue with silhouettes of two singers with microphones and then the word Jazz in red sparkles
woman wearing a black fringe skirt and stocking with black fringe garters painted with black musical notes

As you can see, most of the models were inside shadowboxes, each with different lighting.

man painted with colorful designs like feathers and petals

And lest you think it was only women being painted, there were paintings of the male sort too.

closeup of a man's back painted in purples with a surrealistic looking stereo speaker and a person standing next to it in silhouette
woman with red horns and her body painted red and blue with a scene of a man using a guitar to fight off a demon
man painted with a stylized guitar and piano keyboard
man's back painted with images of KISS in full makeup

Along with the shadowbox models, there were other models that were wandering about the crowd and were painted to advertise various liquors.

three women, two painted with plants and flowers and wearing flower crowns and the one in the center with a feather headdress painted with gold and white swirls

It was a fun event, and definitely moved me out of my comfort zone.  Such interesting places this photography thing takes me!

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