Hair, make-up, styling, photography, retouching and whatnot are all by Hellan Judd (aka me!)

Photos by Tim Phillips… various other sets from the same day to follow shortly.

n.b. intentional over-airbrushing in the second photo… I call it artistic license.

Photography by Rebecca Tun, post-processing by me.

I was flexing my dark side (of the camera) muscles for a change, and had some quite specific ideas in mind for some gritty, shadowy shots with messy backcombed hair; all of which flew out the window when I started doing Rebecca’s make-up.  It accidentally inspired me to create quite an elaborate sculpture of a hair style… which then made me realise that she looked a little Geisha-esque and sent me rushing for the Kimono which I was given by Kazami Ranki at LFAJRB 2012.

The result: crisp, clean & colourful beauty shots… I love it when a plan falls apart.

Photography, hair, make-up, styling and post-processing are all by me (as Hellan Judd, my non-model persona).

It’s an interesting point that ‘open leg’ (of the ‘can see everything’ variety, as opposed to ‘conveniently placed bit of shadow’) seems to have become a genre in it’s own right instead of just a pose.  This usually involves a ‘girl next door’ type model placed in quite an everyday setting; the point of which, I assume, is to convince the viewer that this is exactly the sort of person they could meet (and potentially fuck) any time, and therefore conjure up some such fantasy accordingly.

Rebecca and I were playing around with the idea of taking all of the realism out of the scenario.  We focused on fashion styling using textures rather than colours to blend my body into its surroundings as much as possible, with the black of my hair and ‘hat’ drawing the eye to my face for a moment or two before the ‘heck, she has no underwear on’ realisation occurs.

Photography by Rebecca Tun; the first image was edited by her, the second by me.  Make-up/styling etc. were a joint effort.

Thoughts and feedback welcome!

Photography and styling: Lorraine Gilligan
MUA: Ruth Lawlor

Lorraine was also shooting this cool take on Delilah with Fredau Hoekstra whilst I was there.  This lady is a frankly awesome model, and very sweet person too.

Here, I’ll be posting things that I find inspirational or things that my friends have done; sometimes, there’ll be things from inspirational friends as well. There may also be a fair amount of random chit-chat and trivia, plus a few updates on my extra-curricular persuits. Anything, in fact, except things that directly involve me as a model… I’ll be keeping that for the existing blog section.

So, to begin proceedings… this is the latest short film by inspirational friend, Alex Bakshaev. It’s a warm, bleak, quirky and stark piece about a young German named Franz, searching for his mother in Russia.

Have a look, and go show it some love.

You can also read Alex’s blog, Trash Film Addict.

Comments appreciated as always.  I personally am loving the crisp, shiny glow.

Photographer: Andy K Stratford.  Hair Stylist: Philippa Rees.  Assistant Photographer: Damon Hicks

Answers in the comment box below… there may be a prize if you get it right first time.