He Shot a Dead Old Model

Some of the alt-photographers and models out there spend large amounts of time preparing and shooting scenarios where the model looks dead. She may be covered in blood (tacky, tacky, tacky, and I don’t just mean literally), or often goth/gore pictures, possibly involving bondage and ropes (just SO last season!)

In his very early days, Richard has even been known to do the odd vampire shot, but it was actually quite cute, I think, rather than scary. No blood or gore at all –he’s just too fluffy a photographer for that (although he’ll kill me for saying so).


Here is the lovely Jenvy, complete with cutsy fangs. Note, I am especially proud of Richard’s makeup job here. The model’s makeup is not natural – it is entirely done afterwards by the Man Himself using Photoshop.

So, vampires aside, how can you actually create a natural art-nude style shot where the model looks authentically dead ?
The answer: Quite by accident, so it seems.

The two pictures below are of yours truly, taken a couple of months ago. After reviewing the pictures, we thought they were quite nice, so Rich submitted them for critique at Photosig.




The first comment we had was that in the first picture, that the model looked quite dead.

A different commentator thought that in the second picture, the photographer was shooting an old model, and trying to make her look younger (which of course, he was ! But the truth hurts folks!)

At the time, I thought it was pretty funny, but Rich was very upset. The photos lasted less than 4 hours on Photosig before he pulled them.

It was a full 3 weeks before I plucked up the courage to go in front of the camera again, and I still haven’t let him photograph my boobs.

The moral of the story ? Be careful what critiques you ask for, especially when the model is the wife…..

And if any photographers out there are looking for oldy art-nude models in a natural yet authentically dead style, then please do feel free to contact me!