Conceptual Portraiture, Fantasy and Art

I love creating unique portraits with a historical twist. I often work with friends who are willing to model for me, and I dress them in costumes I’ve sourced from a variety of places—from charity shops, family and friends and even my own hand-sewn creations. My goal is for the costumes to look authentic and well-made, not like cheap “fancy-dress” outfits from China. It’s also important to me that they fit the model well.

Once the model and costume are ready, I begin the photoshoot. Lately, I’ve been working in my home studio, which gives me complete control over the lighting. However, I’ve also taken many photos at outdoor events. I use a textured studio background for the initial shots, but I often plan to add a more detailed, historical backdrop later in the editing process, to create my composite images. It might only be a bookcase or a panelled wall, but it will help to add context and narrative. To enable this, I’ve built up a library of historical location photographs, over the years, which I can easily access in Lightroom.

My compositions lean towards solemnity, in many cases. I blend my subjects into atmospheric fantasy backgrounds, aiming to achieve a dreamy, painterly feel. I draw inspiration from classic techniques like chiaroscuro, which uses strong contrasts of light and shadow, and Rembrandt lighting, which resembles light from a window, like that used by many of the painters of the Dutch Golden Age. On my bookshelves, I have more books about art than photography.

These are some of my latest conceptual portraits…that aim to tell a story, capture a mood and hopefully demonstrate a degree of technical and creative skill, along with elements of symbolism, in the execution.