Medusa themed body painting photoshoot
Here are some images from a recent collaboration that I did with makeup artist Meghan Thomas and actor, model, dancer Genevieve Clements. I have worked with Meghan many times and it's always a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with such a talented artist! This was the second photoshoot that I did with Genevieve. As an actor and dancer, Genevieve has great expression and body awareness, which makes her a wonderful photography model to work with.
In preparation for the shoot, I read up on the Greek myth of Medusa (in Wikipedia of course!) and found out that she had two sisters, both also Gorgons - monsters with snakes for hair and the power to turn anyone to stone with their gaze. Her sisters were immortal, but Medusa was not, and was killed by Perseus by chopping off her head. The winged horse Pegasus sprung from Medusa's blood. Pegasus was the offspring of Medusa and the god of the sea Poseidon. In ancient times, Medusa was monstrous in appearance, but later was depicted as beautiful (except for the snakes).
In this shoot, we wanted to invoke the symbolism of Medusa - a combination of feminine beauty and snake imagery. We did two different sets - the first was shadowy with a dark background and lighting to show the body painting work. For the second set, I used a handpainted background featuring ancient Greek columns to go with the Greek myth theme. Here's a photo gallery with more images from the shoot.
