The key to a successful photograph is the ability of the photographer to capture movement—not in the sense of a body running across a field, but rather that elusive ability to click the shutter and encase, within a single image, an explosive, resonant example of an intangible energy.
Iain Crawford’s photos in his series Beauty do just this. Using the flawless faces of commercial models, Crawford splashes them with paint, with colored powders, with water, and it is in these moments where the motion is most pronounced. While the human subject remains perfectly still, the co-stars of the photo—paint, colored powders, water—grab our attention. It is this motion, this vitality, that steals the show in every single shot. Crawford, based in the UK, has photographed campaigns for top magazines and brands internationally, and “loves to capture images that have a strong graphic and textural quality, often searching out the graphical symmetry in chaos, while still maintaining the personality and emotion of the subject.” [Via Empty Kingdom]
[quote] Commenting on the ‘paint’ shoot, Iain says: ‘I love the fusion between paint and model. The resulting shapes are as opulent as any piece of bespoke couture. The excitement and anticipation as we waited to see the next piece of unpredictable chaos was electric. There was something magical about how random chance materialised into beautiful images in front of our eyes.’” [/quote]
