Metamorphoses

It seemed like it would never end, but I have reached the last day of my 14 day workspree. When you love your job, it's not a problem to work for days on end without break, but a morning of sleeping in is worth gold too.

For this shoot I woke up early again, with a long drive ahead of me. As with most jobs with Bart, I had no idea what this job would entail. Usually I don't take jobs without knowing the details, but with Bart it is different. We have worked together many times before and every time is a total surprise and great fun. It's a totally different way of working, because his photography is mainly about story telling. He will have envisioned his entire photo beforehand, thinking up crazy sets, adding atmosphere with smoke machines, lights and coloured gels. But the most important part are the models, as they are more actors than models. To my surprise this job included body paint (so there were a few hours of standing still included) and a simple white background (which is very unusual for Bart's work).

For this particular shoot, Bart worked around the story of Morpheus and Iris. My co-model was stage artist Yon Costes. We were posing laying down on a white background with the camera hanging above us. It may not seem like it from my work, but I am physically not very flexible, so this pose was hard for me. On top of that, we had to hold the general pose for quite a long time, adding small variations in hands and expression. After 20min my right arm fell asleep from being in this weird angle for too long. Luckily we had the shot and it looks amazing!

You can visit Bart's exhibition until May 24th. More info on www.bartramakers.com/exhibitions

Persephone and Hades

Another day working with Bart Ramakers and his team. Today I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. I was lending my legs and feet to an artwork telling the story of Persephone and Hades, which will be a part of his Metamorfoses project.

The flower shop "De Borght" had prepared a scenery showing the underworld where Hades resides, following the roots all the way to the beautiful flowers at the surface of the earth where Persephone is playing amid the narcissus. This is not a composition, this photo was created in one shot.

Portraits in Milan

While yesterday I was working with in rainy Belgium, next up is working in rainy Milan. No luck with the weather for me...  🙈

Busy 2 days working with Gabriele Pizzuto in his studio so the weather doesn't really matter. We made some amazing portraits and art nudes on day one and tested his new colour LEDs on the second day. Because all set-ups used speed lights we got about 2000 images per day, and I can honestly say that when I was going through them on the computer afterwards about 90% of them looked really good. This is going to be a hell of job to select!

For both days we had the beautiful and talented Elena Gaggero for make up and hair. She did a few of the best make up looks I ever had!

Results are simply AMAZING!

The toy collector

Another amazing day working with Bart Ramakers kicks of 10 days of non-stop working. Although working 10 days in a row is not unusual, doing this in 3 different countries is for me. It means getting on a plane, shooting the same day and on to the next. It is stamped with amazing and exciting projects and I'm looking forward to each and every one of them!

As usual I went into the shoot without knowing the details for Bart's new project, but as soon as I arrived at the location I could tell it would be story telling at it's best with another highly detailed shot.

MUA: Rania Visagiste

We had a few minutes spare in between set decoration and make up, so we came up with another shot called "War games", about the war against female nudity and liberty on social media.

En Vogue

After our third edition of the "Monochrome" workshop, Bruno and I decided to start preparing a new workshop that he names "En Vogue". It will be a fashion workshop where I get to do both crazy poses and hang around pretending to be bored.

Here's a preview of what we will be working on during the workshop!

BewarenBewaren

Ladies of Boulevard Leopold

Last weekend I was honored to join Zoi Morgan's "Ladies at the Mansion" event in Antwerp for a fabulous shootday with extraordinary styling.

I had a great time with co-models Zoi, Ivory Flame and Mischkah Scott and the participants. There is something about Zoi's events that attracts like-minded creatives for a relaxed day and lots of stunning images.

Photographer: Maarten Scholtheis

Photographer: Bob Zietse                                     Photographer: Hans Miller

Photographer: Bernhard Ehrminger

Ice Queen

When I came home from a hairdresser's assignment for William De Ridder, Gert O. Photo and I decided to use the last 20minutes of daylight to shoot a few portraits with grey/blue colored lenses I had be wanting to shoot for a few months already. A quick dive into the Christmas decorations and we had our look.

Photographer: Gert O. Photo

Hairstylist: William De Ridder

MUA: Chris Del Anno

On Tour: USA's East Coast

Boston:

Photographer: Yuri Kriventsoff

New York:

Photographer: Spyro Zarifopoulos

Photographer: MamudsNY

Photographer: Marcin Dobrev

Atlanta:

Photographer: Sublime Lightworks

Latex: Westward Bound

MUA: Molly Todd & BXCCS

On Stage: William De Ridder for Paul Mitchel

Did another show for William De Ridder. I love being on stage, especially for William. Although you have to wait long before the actual show - which is completely normal - the atmosphere backstage is always good, styling is great and hair is styled into perfection. What more do you want?

Here are some backstage shots, waiting to get dressed and waiting to get on stage.

The models on stage:

Backstage shot afterwards:

One morning in Paris

It's strange how some days go. One minute you're getting up at 6.30 in the morning, a little later you are on the train to Paris to enjoy a walk in the sun through the Parisian streets only a few hours later. As grumpy and tired I was in the morning, that's how lighthearted I was when walking the streets. I had enough time so decided to do everything on foot in stead of taking the metro.

Around noon I arrived at the hotel where I was going to shoot with Julien Sunyé. As usual it was great working with Julien. He did a few testshots to see how he wanted to approach the location and to check light and angles, and we were ready to start. We shot a few setups on the balcony of the hotel, which had a great view of the Eiffel Tower. It was a beautiful day, which was a bit of a challenge with the sun playing hide and seek behind the clouds. We ended up with great shots!

A little later I was back in the Parisian streets with a little time left for sightseeing, to hop back on the train home a few hours later. What a great day!