This week my horror photography spotlight has fallen on some awesome pictures by Ben Sottak.
Ben’s photos bring something a bit new and very cool to the table because he is the first photographer I have featured who uses mother nature to help him create striking and amazingly lifelike images. He doesn’t construct intricate indoor sets featuring multiple light sources in a small dark room, he simply takes his figures out into the open world and when he finds the right location at the right time of day the end results are truly memorable and give life to these pieces of plastic.
In a strange way his shots also highlight just how well made and accurate some modern action figures can be, even in the silhouette pictures. You can’t see detail but you just know right away who these characters are due to the high quality sculpting we now get in toy designs. When I first looked at them they were thumbnail size and you could almost be forgiven for thinking they were actual stills from a movie, they feel real and I love that.
I contacted Ben for permission to share some of his work and to find out a little bit more about the man and his hobby, here is what he had to say …
“I’m a filmmaker first and foremost, so these photos let me live out my geeky fantasy of imagining how I would shoot an Evil Dead or Friday The 13th movie. Growing up I was always the kid playing with action figures outside in the sandbox or in the woods. I still do that, but by taking photos I get to pretend I’m making art, and it seems slightly less weird (I think?)”
“It’s fun to think about how a character would interact with a life-size space if he were only 6 inches tall. The challenge becomes playing with perspective and posing to make the character appear natural in the location. It also requires some patience, especially if you’re waiting around for ‘magic hour’ lighting, but when it finally arrives, it totally brings your figures to life (Zombie-pun fully intended!)”
Much more can be found here and I leave you with a selection of my favourites, they really are quite special.
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