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SHOT! Desmond Murray

January 15, 2021

This image is my most favourite shot – EVER!

The reason being I think is that it took me on a particularly interesting journey to achieve the end result.

It all started with an idea of course, I wanted to create a collection of images that were just black and white, minus any grey tones.   I did a test to see if that could be achieved with lighting and also taking makeup into consideration.

Working with a black model, the makeup artist applied oil all over her skin – some 12 hours later using only a Formula One soft box and two backlights for lighting it failed to meet my intentions!

We then tried greasepaint – one layer didn’t work but two did – it was amazing and we nailed the lighting too!  I then had to overcome two more hurdles!

One was to try and source models that would be up for modelling in such a scenario and also with good hair!

Luckily the model that we did the ‘test’ with was a professional and showed all her fellow models at the agency the photograph we had done and I got inundated with models that wanted to be a part of the shoot.

On the hair front I locked myself away in my studio for a couple of days and came up with a concept that proved to be the foundation of the entire collection.

Hair by Desmond Murray @ Atherton Cox
Make up by Jo Sugar
Photogrpahy by Desmond Murray

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