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.

• Nelly Recchia Official Site
• Nelly Recchia Interview with Senze
• Nelly Recchia on MySpace

I love this photo by Hyperion for its milky, opalescent quality. Most “scene portraits” try to be loud and in-your-face, so it’s interesting to see portraits that are so muted that still manage to resonate a great deal of strength. Hyperion shoots mostly on film and uses sculptural hairpieces to fill up the square compositions. I sometimes disagree with the makeup choices in his images, but when it all comes together, it’s pure magic.

What do S&M, Udo Kier and puppy fucking have in common? So glad you asked! They’re all in Madonna’s Sex book, see. Say what you want about her current honey locks and spandex ass, back in the 90s this woman owned.

Owned with a capital “O”, no matter what it took as this book goes to some length to prove. Inside the brushed metal cover are photos in Steven Meisel’s signature iconic style alongside some fairly gritty fetish scenes, all accompanied by erotic writing by Madonna herself.

Clickng below probably not safe for work, as you might have guessed.

Left: Lucy from Dracula. Right: Ruff by Junya Watanabe.

Ruffs! Why are they so intoxicatingly awesome? It’s just a ruffle of fabric on a drawstring, but whenever I see one, it still evokes an instant Pavlovian response. A ruff turns a person into a character: a creature that’s decadent, aristocratic, maybe even a little tragic. I marvel at ruffs the way I marvel at lush cake icing and delicate origami, and while there’s something very sensuous about the wrapping, ruffs also make people look very strong, armored, untouchable.

“Virginqueen” photo shoot by Viona.

In celebration of my tender relationship with ruffs, I present to you my favorite manifestations of these sumptuous adornments in fashion, photography, music and film. The list is by no means complete, so please feel free to chime with your own ruff finds! One of the images and some of the links below may not be SFW, but most are. The Romp through Ruffs begins with the work of photographer Tina Cassati:

Striking image – Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall enjoy a stroll. Hat tip to Jerem Morrow for pointing it our way. If anyone can tell me who shot this, I’d be most grateful. Never too late to gender bend! It harkens back to the olden days, when the Stones posed for this cover photo by Jerry Schatzberg.

I’ve mentioned Eric Eric Lafforgue here before, click his eye and lens are just remarkable. In my mind he must be some sort of great adventurer, at least according to his Flickr stream. The stunning image above is from a book of his on the Papou tribe of New Guinea.

To be more creative is to get closer to childhood.
-Sarah Moon

“Impressionist photographer” Sarah Moon has spent her entire career dancing down the high-wire tension line strung between fine-art and fashion photography. To my knowledge, she has yet to falter or repeat herself.

Her phantasmagoric vision, though often imitated, would be impossible to duplicate. Most anyone with the time and resources can become a darkroom wizard, and Moon certainly is, using capricious techniques like sepia coloring on matte paper, toned silver gelatin printing, solarization, monochrome Polaroid pack, etc. Much of the trendy work made through these means can seem a bit stale or derivative, lacking a certain sense of playfulness, don’t you think? The mischievous gut level allegory found in Moon’s most memorable compositions sets her apart.

Take a stroll through her dreamy fairy tale world beyond the cut.

I’m working on making it possible to upload a little avatar next to your name when you post a comment. Stay tuned! In the meantime, I bring you one of my favorite modern fashion photographers: Eugenio Recuenco. I chose to post about him now to counterbalance my Decline of Fashion Photography post: see, it’s not all doom and gloom!

There’s just so much to see on his site. I love this noir alien encounter story, and this one about matadors, and this creepy hotel shoot with elements of The Shining. I love his nautical themes: there’s one story about shipwrecked passengers who make it to the shore, and another about Titantic, with a gallery each before and after the collision with the iceberg. There’s a sexy story about fencing (the only sport I ever liked!), and tons more. Visiting his site is like re-reading a good book; every time, you find something new.

On the left is an image by Irving Penn shot in 1951 for Vogue. On the right is an image from a recent issue of Paper. What happened? In a compelling, troche easy-to-follow “argument in pictures” on Slate.com, viagra Karen Lehrman delineates the decline of fashion photography through the past half-century, arguing that modern fashion photography forgets to create art in favor of commerce (hence the sterile, cataloge-looking images you see in American Vogue), or alternately forgets commerce in favor of attempts at art (above, right). Walking you through 60 years of fashion photography with compelling examples to support her various points, Lerhman discusses how focus groups, misogyny, the changing role of the fashion photographer and other factors have all done their part in bringing about the downfall of the craft.

Thanksgiving is a stupid holiday, I’m not going to post anything relating to it! Instead, I bring you the following list of fashion aliens, in which we count down the most fragile, bizarre, unusual specimens of beauty to be found in the mainstream modeling world. The countdown begins with…

# 7: Lily Cole. Lily almost didn’t make this list because she’s more doll-like than alien. I envision her more baking gingerbread cookies than stepping out of a flying saucer. But there is something about her. And she is weird! I look forward to her starring as Alice in the Marilyn Manson-directed horror film Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll.