Photography

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Art Photography

Fantastical Photographs of Opulently Dressed Models in Castles and Mansions

Photographer Natalie Lennard, who works as Miss Aniela, creates lavish scenes centered around elegantly dressed models. While each image might seem, at first glance, like a straightforward luxury fashion shoot, further inspection reveals surreal details. A canary yellow tulle gown morphs into birds, and ocean water splashes out of a painting frame.

Miss Aniela’s fantastical scenes are created using a combination of on-site shoots with practical effects, along with extensive post-production and even bespoke C.G.I. (as for the 20,000 fish forming the dress worn by a deep sea diver model in “She Shoal”). The photographer explains that all images are shot on location with the model posed and lit in-frame. “Sometimes I do not know whether the image will be largely ‘raw’ and not require overt surrealism added,” Aniela shares, “until I go through the process to feel what is right for each piece.”

The U.K.-based artist has been working as a fine art photographer for 13 years, getting her start with self-portraits as a university student. In some works, she incorporates direct references to paintings from the art historical canon. Aniela has been working in her current style since 2011, and shares with Colossal that she has noticed a rising interest in her work from art collectors, as the lines between fine art and fashion are increasingly blurred.

You can explore more of Miss Aniela’s immersive worlds on Instagram, and go behind the scenes of production in her explanatory blog posts. Fine art prints are available via Saatchi Art.

Art Photography

South African Flowers Frozen into Fleeting Arrangements

South African photographers Bruce Boyd and Tharien Smith have spent the last two years photographing clusters of brightly colored flowers trapped in blocks of ice. The temporary sculptures are captured underwater, where the ice begins to crack and add further dimension to the floral compositions.

Flowers are sourced from Cape Town’s gardens, hedges, and trees, which are then placed in plastic containers and frozen for three nights. At dawn, Boyd and Smith take the capsules to the nearest stream or pool to begin their photoshoot. “Very few of the frozen arrangements come out perfectly,” explains Boyd to Colossal. “Mostly bubbles form that obscure the flowers, or the flowers drift from their set positions. We have learned to accept the imperfections, and even make it part of our work.”

You can see more of their arrangements on their project website Zero Degrees, in addition to Facebook, and Instagram. Boyd and Smith also offer fine art prints of their frozen flowers. (via Colossal Submissions)

Art Photography

Photographs of Animals and Architecture are Sliced and Rearranged into Bizarre Collages by Lola Dupre

Spain and Scotland-based collage artist Lola Dupre (previously) continues to surprise and delight with her unusual composite images. Rather than incorporating unique individual collage elements that contrast with each other, Dupre works with repetition and duplication to build bizarrely proportioned pets, buildings, and human figures. By layering and off-setting shards of the same photo in a sort of visual syncopation, Dupre stretches and bends otherwise familiar subjects into surreal images.

The artist recently exhibited work in the show “The Age of Collage 2” at Feinkunst Krueger gallery in Hamburg, Germany, and currently has a piece in “Lunacy” at Prescription Art in Brighton, U.K. You can see more of Dupre’s collages on Instagram and tumblr, and peruse originals and prints in her online store.

 

Art Photography

Vintage Cameras Dissected With a Saw and Suspended in Resin by Fabian Oefner

For his latest series titled “CutUp,” artist Fabian Oefner (previously) used a band saw to slice film and still cameras into pieces, revealing their beautiful and complex inner workings. The pieces were rearranged, reassembled, and suspended in resin in interesting configurations. Each new sculpture transforms the tools for making art into new works of art designed to be viewed from multiple angles.

Explaining the production process, Oefner said in a statement that he uses a “unique mix of high-end and low-end technologies.” Resin is poured around the cameras to prepare the objects for cutting. Oefner’s preferred method for curing the resin around the cameras involves vacuum and pressure chambers that are capable of reaching precise temperatures and atmospheric pressures. The blocks are then dissected using an old band saw before being hand-polished and rearranged. The new forms are encapsulated in resin and polished again to reveal every detail.

For a video of the creation process scroll down, and for more exploded views of cameras and other objects, follow Fabian Oefner on Instagram.

Art Photography

Models with Albinism Challenge Standards of Beauty in Photographs by Justin Dingwall

Photographer Justin Dingwall (previously) continues to challenge how the public perceives and defines beauty. In his photo series “Albus,” butterflies and snakes rest on models with albinism as symbols of transformation and change. The images are a celebration of diversity and an invitation for viewers to question and rethink conventional beauty standards.

The series includes portraits of model Sanele Junior Xaba and South African model, lawyer, and activist Thando Hopa, the first woman with albinism to grace the cover of Vogue. Dingwall uses light and dark in his work for contrast, but also symbolically to represent truth and an unenlightened state. The photographer also uses water in some of the photographs to indicate change and self- reflection.

“They are not about race or fashion, but about perception, and what we subjectively perceive as beautiful,” Dingwall in a statement. “I wanted to create a series of images that resonate with humanity and make people question what is beautiful…To me diversity is what makes humanity interesting and beautiful.”

To see more of Justin Dingwall’s work, give him a follow over on Instagram.

Amazing Photography

Earth’s Rotation Visualized in a Timelapse of the Milky Way Galaxy by Aryeh Nirenberg

Although the Earth rotates below the sky, aerial time-lapse videos often have the perspective of a celestial scene rushing above the ground. In this brief video by Aryeh Nirenberg, the Milky Way becomes completely stationary, highlighting specifically the Earth’s rotation. Nirenberg recorded the time-lapse with a Sony a7SII with the Canon 24-70mm f2.8 lens while using an equatorial tracking mount over a period of three hours. You can see more of his starscapes on Instagram and Youtube. (via Kottke)

Photography

Passport Photos Widened to Reveal Unexpected Chaos Hiding Just Beyond of the Frame

Max Siedentopf was in the process of getting his picture taken to renew his passport. As he sat in front of the camera, he began thinking of all of the ridiculous restraints placed on the small image —no smile, or patterns, or glasses, or anything interesting whatsoever. Siedentopf decided to create an alternate reality for a set of these “boring” identification images, creating regulation passport photos from scenes of intrigue, and often chaos.

The London-based visual artist recruited a cast of friends and strangers to sit for passport photos. Above the shoulders the participants are straight-faced and rigid, yet below they are balancing full wine glasses along their arms, taped to a wall, or even on fire. The humorous series explores the fringes of mundane government tasks, while imbuing some personality in the utterly quotidian. You can see more examples from his Passport Photos series on his website and Instagram. (via PetaPixel)