One of the essential tools in any photographer’s toolbox is the ability to understand how to harness light. It’s not accomplished simply by popping open the built-in flash or snapping and manipulating a shot in Instagram or waiting for the sun to set at that perfect height in the sky. Understanding how to use light, how to make it as important to the photograph as the subject and the surroundings—now that is the hallmark of a true photographer, a true painter of light. Photographer Anton Surkov is one such painter. In this untitled series of black-and-white photographs, Surkov has managed to harness light to bring attention not only to the models but to the finite details in each shot. We have gorgeous, toned bodies; we have a fine powder that behaves like chalk dust. By employing split-second timing, Surkov has accentuated the intensity of these bodies in motion with the exploding dust, thereby creating a visually compelling, emotionally provocative composition.
