Bodypaint as Ballet: The Work of Nelly Recchia

Making still images with bodypaint is becoming a bit of a lost art in the age of Photoshop. Why sit there and paint on someone for 13 hours, a nightmare of smudges and sore muscles, when you can just copy, paste and apply a mask? Body painter Nelly Recchia would explain that it’s the same as digital video vs. film; each is a legitimate medium, but that sometimes the “old way” of doing something can bring out a certain depth that you just can’t achieve with easy new techniques.

To Recchia, body painting is a ritualistic act, dating to the prehistoric age, which communicates our desire to transform ourselves and transcend the human body. She does use Photoshop occasionally, but only for minor corrections; the bulk of the work has to be done with models posing the same way for hours, a task that requires patience and strength. In the end, the models in her work glow with a type of poised discipline that Photoshop could never give.

3 Responses to “Bodypaint as Ballet: The Work of Nelly Recchia”

  1. Damien Says:

    Nadya, you post some of the most ridiculously hot things I’ve ever seen. Thank you.

  2. Jerem Morrow Says:

    All kinds of hell yes.

  3. Tequila Says:

    This is one of those things you keep having to go back to again and again…letting it sink in slowly. They back a far bigger punch when you focus on just one image at a time…seeing multiple at once overloads the eyes with way too much candy. Beautiful on multiple levels but more so on how simple it all looks…it’s not drowning in unneeded detail or going for style over substance. Hard not to be greatly inspired by all this…I know it gives me ideas anyhow.