I am excited to announce, ‘Deal with the Devil’ was accepted into the Fire and Ice exhibit at The Mowhawk Gallery. It will be on display from January 26th to March 30th.

Deal with the Devil

I am fortunate to work with many talented artists from many different backgrounds. Recently, I have been using our collaborations as a springboard into a unique genre, where I’m finding a creative outlet for my photographic talent. I intentionally let my image direct where I take it, after embracing the creative foundation. I take what is started and begin to mold it and steer it in a direction where I see it wanting to go.

For this image, I worked with two body painters, Aryn Fox and Amber Johnson. I brought in two models and gave them all a generalized theme. ‘CONTRAST’. We brain stormed: Black and white; male and female; yin and yang, fire and ice... and there it began. I let them take over and create using their canvases. In the process we adapt and adjust to changing thoughts until we/they come to a final product. That’s when I begin my work. We come up with concepts of what we want the photograph to portray. Using those ideas, I adjust my lighting and pose them in such a way to both show off the art on their bodies, as well as to take it to that next step and tell another story. I want the body art to be appreciated, but then become natural, as if being without it would be anomalous.

Deal with the Devil, is more than just the idea of contrast between fire and ice. The posing lends itself to an almost motion-like vision of balance, as if the hot flames were licking at the frozen ice, causing it to melt and flow together. As in nature, there is a constant heating and cooling in an attempt to reach a homeostatic equilibrium.

Jason Bohrer