Unusual in this day and age of Photoshop madness, French-born, California-based photographer Jean-Paul Bourdier—whose “day job” includes an address in the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley—relies on the natural environment, the perfect light, some paint, and a collection of beautiful bodies to bring to life his vision for his first book, called Bodyscapes
For this series, the models’ bodies are painted to become part of the surrounding landscape; it is clear that a great deal of attention is paid to matching the paint colors exactly to create a seamless integration of human and earth. Bourdier’s fascination with texture and form have given rise to a compelling series of surreal images. A recent Kickstarter campaign for his second book, called Leap Into the Blue, was successfully funded as of August 17, 2012 (though Bourdier has invested $300,000 over the past 12 years toward this project).
