Brenton Parry

Was this the beginning?

Added 2020-08-18 09:11:12 +0000 UTC

In November 2009 I hired a studio for the very first time. I had absolutely zero training in studio lighting or working with a model in a studio environment. In a stark white studio with the infinity curved backdrop it's a very different environment to all the options available to you when you shoot in an outdoor location.

Brad was a guy that contacted me through my blog and volunteered to model. He had done a photo shoot back in his home country of Canada but had never seen the images. The photographer had never sent them to him. I draped him over a white box and reclined him up against the curved wall doing my best with (from memory) two lights with diffusing soft boxes on them. Soft shaded light has become my trademark for my studio shoots.

It's not a traditionally "commercial" lighting and it's definitely not traditional beauty lighting. It's not even traditional lighting for male nudes. It is much more conventional for muscular male nudes to be photographed with fairly harsh lighting because it really defines the muscles of the model.

In the lead up to the photo shoot I went and bought some fabric "just in case". After doing the nudes I asked Brad if he was ok if I draped the fabric across his body and wrapped his head in the fabric. Thankfully he said "Absolutely" and one of my most recognised images was created. It became the lead image from my very first solo gallery exhibition 15 months later.

Since then, draping models, covering their faces with masks or even their whole bodies with fabric/clay/paint/sticks has become something that feels very natural to me. Why? Who knows really. I'd like to think that it doesn't feel forced or contrived and I hope you guys like the end results as much as I do.