Actually, finished, as post-production work, of course. I tried to apply an excellent tutorial to play with my own photographs and recreate Francis who comes into life from what looks like a hand drawing first. Even when following the tutorial this still takes a lot of time, but I like the result, very different from the usual JanC photographs.

Francis is a volleyball player and this is how I found inspiration for this ad-like composition. The model was shot in studio (using several strobes to create a more “3D” lighting), the picture of a gym was then added digitally. I spent a lot of time blending the two together, first cutting the model out then adapting the lights and the colors… A lot of sweat indeed! How do you find the result?

I love interacting with other artists; it is always inspiring and rich experience for a photographer. Like here: I already had something in mind for how this picture should look after post-production; something with a graphical background and other geometric figures, however when I stumbled upon Albert Stapleton Jr.’s work on Myspace I thought I would like to offer him to collaborate and add his own imagination to my work with Francis because I liked his work and his energy. Here is the result of back and forth discussions and several talks between us. And we’re already working on a new project!

Playing with tutorials and doing some research can yield interesting results. The picture below is inspired by fairy tales for (young) adults - laser beams, fantasy universes, the bad, the good and the ugly… and knights, too. What do you think about the retouching work? Does it look fantastic enough? It was shot in the studio in Paris (using a purple gel on the camera-left light) and then post-produced for special FX. Model: Steeve.