Fine art acting portraits in studio
Models and actors on a personal project reenacting a painting scene
The original article was written when Zoom Studio was named Aguiar Photography.
Fine art photography in a studio
Samson and Delilah’s original painting really impressed me with the amount of detail, the character’s body positions, and the sophisticated background.
I was attracted by the challenge to position the models, lighting the scene, and handling the background well. I had to try to recreate part of that masterpiece and live that experience.
As a preparation for this image, I painted two large boards by hand to create a background somehow similar to the luxurious brothel where the courtesan Delilah seduced Samson.
In the original painting, Samson is somehow red, probably due to the effect of the surroundings and candlelight. I decided to make our Samson darker and our Delilah quite white to get a harder contrast.
It was very good to work with Claire, Kelvin, Faezeh, and Luke in this quite difficult photo to recreate the positions of the hands, the candlelight, the shadows on Samson’s back, and Delilah’s soft skin.
I hope you enjoy it and send me your comments.
The original paintings:
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Samson and Delilah between 1609-1610
Oil on wood, 185 x 205 cm (National Gallery – London)
Born in Siegen, Westphalia during the 16th century, Ruben was a landscape, portrait, and historical painter. Known as a Baroque artist, Ruben focused his work on color, clarity and immaculate attention to detail. With tension and drama between his subjects, Ruben successfully captured the attention of audiences through his storytelling.
This draws evidence from Ruben’s fine artwork: Samson and Delilah. The story behind this piece depicts a man (Samson) as the main subject, lying in the embrace of a woman (Delilah) who was paid to trick him into telling her the secret of how to weaken him.
Amongst other techniques, the use of lighting enabled the photographic representation to capture the textures and color of skin tones and fabrics. Attention to hand and body positioning, along with facial expressions, makeup, and costume selection; are also important points of focus when structuring the composition. Overall, the photographic result was successful to balance the close proximity of subjects into emotion as the original accomplishes.
Team
Faezeh top left holding a candle.
Faezeh is an inspirational teacher who lives and breathes the notion that growing old does not mean slowing down.
Full of life and positivity, Faezeh has in recent years found new vigor in starting a modeling career at 62 years of age and is enjoying doing that.
She also harnesses all her energy in spreading the word about causes close to her heart, helping people less fortunate and connecting to friends all over the world – for she is a global citizen through and through.
Her life mantra is, “Don’t look at the end, look at the journey”
Claire (Delilah)
Claire was born and bred on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, and developed a love for performing at a young age. Throughout High School, she took singing, dancing, and acting lessons, as well as completing VCE Drama.
Claire joined the Royal Australian Navy the year after she graduated from school and began a career as a Maritime Warfare Officer. During her eleven-year naval career, Claire completed her Bachelor of Arts, Honours, and a Masters of Philosophy, as well as progressing her primary naval qualifications of navigation, warfare and ship handling. She also completed various roles in aid du camp positions, representational duties, recruit training and instructing a deployment to the Middle East. She lived interstate and overseas for a decade before returning to the Mornington Peninsula with a posting to HMAS Cerberus in December 2014.
Claire maintained her love for performing despite the restrictions of her naval career through amateur productions, improvisation workshops, NIDA short courses, small plays and concerts. Since resigning from full-time naval service in September 2015, Claire has completed two VCA short courses, short drama pieces and two full-length plays with her local theatre company and is currently participating in the VCA Acting Studio part-time course.
In her spare time, Claire is a wine, beer, and cider distributor, a life and leadership coach, and continues to conduct studies in English Literature. She is an avid horse rider, wine fancier, animal lover, part-time hair model, and passionate about the development of others. She aspires to professional acting in Film, Theatre, and Television and finds nothing more magical and enjoyable than transporting an audience into another world through a well-told story.
Luke (Man in blue with scissors)
Over a concise period of time, Luke has been exposed to a large variety of theatre, film and photography-based events. He has formal training in the fields of acting, improvisation, movement, and voice.
After completing both the Theatre Arts course at Swinburne and the full-time course at TAFTA. Luke now relishes the chance to push his skills further and step out of his comfort zone by engaging with different character personas and experimenting with emotion. Represented by ‘Select Actors Management’ and currently undertaking formal singing lessons, Luke maintains the training as a key element in persistence. Contact can be made by ‘Casting Networks’, ‘Showcast’ and ‘Star now.’
“Always be thankful for the opportunity to act.”
Kelvin (Samson)
Kelvin is 22 years old and from Victoria, Australia. He is a creative, devoted, entertaining and professional individual who strives for perfection. His passion leads to photoshoots and runway/fashihighlights His career highlight up to date has been involved in the Positive runway show during the Aids conference held in Melbourne and gracing the runway for world designers in the Melbourne Spring fashion week 2015.
His main aim is to be involved in as many photoshoots and fashion parade/runway as possible to enhance his experience and take his career to the next level.
Debbie (Costume designer)
Debbie is the head of the wardrobe for the National Theatre ballet in the National Theatre in St Kilda since 2008 and has participated in numerous professional productions in Melbourne and all-around Australia. It was really a pleasure and fun working with Debbie.
Emily (Makeup artist)
Emily is a very experienced makeup artist. She has always had a passion for the industry and especially enjoys the creative side of photoshoots.
References
- Langmuir, E. The National Gallery Companion Guide. (pp. 246-247). National Gallery Company, London: Yale University Press.
- Peter Paul Rubens Biography. (2002-2016). Retrieved 22nd September from http://www.peterpaulrubens.org/biography.html
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