My research for the curatorial presentation at the Angkor Wat festival led me to many interesting bodies of work. I had help from several areas. The photographers themselves, particularly Pedro Meyer, Frad Baldwin and Wendy Watriss of Fotofest, were many amongst them. Francoise Callier??helped by giving me unfettered freedom in choice and format. It was hard work, but I was enjoying it. As always, there was work I couldn’t include into a 90 minute presentation. I decided to continue the work. Here is some of the work that didn’t make it to the show. Not because the work wasn’t good enough, but because it didn’t quite fit. Enjoy:
Models? Faces Turned Into Stunning Optical Illusions By Creative Russian Duo
Moscow-based photographer Alexander Khokhlov and makeup artist Valeriya Kutsan have created a bewitching series of portraits that play with the natural lines of their models? faces and twist them into strange new forms.
Their newest series of stunning colored portraits,?2D Or Not 2D, is only the latest collaboration between the two artists. Khokhlov and Kutsan have also created portrait series with powerful black-and-white designs and a series parodying the popular Angry Birds game. The designs are amazing ? some of them soften or break down the face?s lines, while others reinforce them or create unnaturally perfect patterns.
The idea behind their latest series was to make the faces look like 2d images. According to Khokhlov ? ?Valeriya used different techniques of face painting so you can see a lot of variations ? from sketch and graphic arts to water-colour and oil-paintings. This is a combination of interesting make-ups, studio photography experiments and careful retouching.?
