I Shoot Snow Portraits by Sticking My Face Into Snow

My Snow Portrait sequence consists of pictures taken utilizing a method I “invented” 8 years in the past that makes use of the “hollow mask” 3D optical phantasm. All of the pictures on this article are imprints of my face in pretty deep snow lit from beneath, virtually like a lithophane. No Photoshop. No filters.

I don’t know what possessed me to stay my face within the snow 8 years in the past, however I’m glad I did. I identify all of my pictures, one thing I’ve almost at all times completed, generally severe and nicely thought out, generally silly or makes an attempt at humor.

The images work by imprinting my face into snow on a glass desk in the dead of night, backlighting it from under, and making a 3D-looking Snow Portrait.

The pictures went slightly viral 8 years in the past and have been featured by varied on-line pages, and I received some cool quotes from locations about me and my pictures:

“There sure isn’t anything that a photographer can’t do if he puts his mind to it,” MCPActions wrote. “Photographer Oliver Turpin shows just how gruesome, yet compelling photography can be with the help of the right technique and… snow.[…] a genuine show of the beautiful art of the quasi-grotesque.”

This shot was some of the widespread, many individuals likening it to the Turin Shroud.

“The artistic self-portraits of the British photographer Oliver Turpin appear as disturbing costumes, scary shadows emerging from the darkness illuminated by a light opalescent. […] Highly original,” wrote Italy’s la Repubblica.

“The resulting mugs are rather creepy and slightly reminiscent of the Shroud of Turin,” PetaPixel wrote on the time.

The pictures have been featured in Photographe journal, distributed in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Switzerland, and Portugal.

It blew my thoughts to see my identify on the entrance of {a magazine} — {a magazine} that’s concerning the artwork of pictures. They needed to characteristic me and my pictures as one among their ‘spotlights’. Psychological.

The superior quote on the high by Sophie Godard reads: “Oliver Turpin surprises us with his creativity and originality of his techniques. His pictures are dark, mystical, in any case enigmatic, and plunge us into another dimension.”

I had 4 pages, and it was the centerfold too!

This previous 12 months, being at residence with lastly sufficient snow enabled me to make some new and up to date pictures utilizing the method. The brand new pictures are lit with gelled flashes, no filters or Photoshop, all in-camera with solely minor tweaking.

I dropped my torch whereas inspecting the imprint and broken the ear a bit, I attempted to repair it however ended up giving myself an extended ear, which I believed seemed like a werewolf ear, virtually like the start of the transformation or one thing.

With the colours and the expression, I needed to present this shot an earthy really feel, on how we as people have imprinted and impacted the local weather and the world.

I believe this might work as a criminal offense/detective/homicide someplace chilly e-book cowl!

I had visions through the years of doing a Han Solo in Carbonite model shot, with an enormous glass desk in my backyard. This was possibly the 12 months? Sadly, the snow solely lined simply over half the glass desk with virtually the correct quantity of snow, so I needed to accept half of me imprinted within the snow.

You will discover my Snow Portraits gallery and my road and journey pictures in my 500px portfolio.

Concerning the creator: Oliver Turpin is a photographer who travels the world and makes pictures as he goes. The opinions expressed on this article are solely these of the creator. You will discover extra of Turpin’s work on his Facebook, 500px, Twitter, and Instagram.