House of Wax

Thanks for your time :)

Seven all the way! I suppose you meant "my latest session" Ben, it would be pity for it to be your last!

Cheers!

PDE

Well styled & lit , with a back stage feeling. Great looking model and cat.

Very nice work.           DM

Amazing shot!. I always had a thing for ladies in fancy dresses. This one has fairy tell touch in it. I like the cat as well it adds to the overall feel of this shot.

@Pierre Dumas - of course not my last session, my mistake, sorry.

In a word, "exquisite"

I like much. Congratulations. Regards.

nice shot

Perfect work Ben,I really like the way  how you sit the light, both model are fantastic .

Fantastic!

The original shot, very interesting surroundings, can be would add the top illumination, well and beautiful model. Yours faithfully, Alex

Great work. congratulations

I don't know which one to pick - both are pretty - a beautiful well posed cat and pretty fair skin model with hypnotized eyes - By the way what is the race of this beautiful cat - I don't mind to have her

hi  i love your lighting on the face of woman and good exposure .

 

 

A very beautifol work!Perfect,elegant....fine art!Compliments and regards..7..

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What's interesting to me is that the bulging and over-emphasized eyes (over-emphasized by the wax artist, not the photographer) reminds me of so many portraits that tend to overdo eyes and overuse other processing effects, often making photographic portraits of real people look like wax figures. So this photograph doesn't look that different from many photographs of real situations which have been photographically processed to a waxy finish. Ironic?

As to this photo, everything is neat and in place. Lighting goes along with that. Works better for me in the context of the folder it's in than it does on its own.

I am trying to decide it is a real person or not. That exact table is in another shot so it could be a real person that is intended to look fake. The slightly strange pose and the eyes looking slightly above the camera help with the illusion.

This emphasizes how important eye direction is. If your subject is not looking at the lens, whatever they are looking should make sense.

I don't believe she is wax, only that she appears to be & it fits the title. I agree the large eyes are becoming overdone. Here, there seems a purpose in that her expression reflects that of the cat's eyes. The exposure is very good

I am underwhelmed. The effect of rigid plasticity and artificiality is admittedly astonishing, and, if one were offering a satire, this would be good. The tragedy is that it probably was not taken or offered for our consumption as satire, but as art--in this case failed art, in my opinion.
--Lannie

The photograph in isolation raises the question of whether this is wax or not however, clicking the arrow left, we see this woman in a completely different pose dispelling that notion.

One of the first things I noticed, and how can you not, was the almost "deer in the headlights" stare of this woman. Her face is the largest/brightest object in the shot which is emphasized all the more by it being against a very dark background. It seems a relatively odd sort of stare until you see the cat and recognize the play here between the two. We essentially see a sort of mimicking by the woman of the cat's exaggerated eyes. Even her hairdo, with the poofs on each side, mimics the alert ears of the cat. Each is at full attention--and they definitely get ours.

I actually think this image is extremely well done in every way. I like the way the concept holds together and the execution and lighting are impeccable. I am sure there has been some retouching done here (based on the shadows I am not sure the cat was actually in the scene with the woman) however, it is impeccably done. Even if I am right about the cat, you wouldn't want, visually, the cat's shadow across the woman's dress, it would be distracting. The styling and attention to detail here is very well done as well. There might be one area that could be perfected that hasn't but is extremely minor.

Looking over Ben's portfolio, I got the distinct feeling of looking at a commercial photographer's portfolio. The work is all very well done and finished--whether one likes some of the styles of work or not, it is all well done. I say commercial rather than fine art as I do feel that the work is not tied together either by technique or theme and has that sense of solving individual assignments rather than looking like a cohesive body of work. Even the website follows this pattern suggesting that "here are the types of things I do" where conceptual pieces are mixed with family portraits, glamor shots and stylistic portraiture.

Overall, it is very nice work throughout.

Hello everybody,
thank you for the close analyzing of this photo, but to end speculations: The cat is real, and so is the model. There is no photo montage or photoshop compositing, just framed to square format. It is one shot, which was hard enough to get with this hyperactive cat. Also nothing was changed on the eyes to make them look bigger or whatever. The original intention was to have it look like those old oil paintings.
To John A: The photos on my web page should show everything I am doing in photography, and should not be mistaken as my artistical portfolio. I agree with you, but I am simply not lucky enough to be able to live from my conceptual photos.
Thanks again to everybody who shares friendly interest and commenting on this photo.
Benowski

Ben, my comment about the sense of a commercial portfolio versus a fine art portfolio was just an observation not any sort of criticism. Commercial portfolios have the purpose to show variety and ability under different circumstances and the execution of differing concepts. So my apologies if it read as anything other than an objective observation.

Your comment about the cat was also a clue to thinking this might have been a composite. We all know the meaning behind "it's like herding cats" and to get both the person and the cat to have the "right" expression in one shot is impressive. I don't see any compromise in either of their demeanor. Although certainly a feat to be applauded, if it had been a composite it wouldn't have lessened the impact of the photo in my eyes.

This is rather startling. The cat is not typically cutesy and almost challenges the notion that a pretty girl should be photographer with a cute kitten! It is hard to walk by this photograph without commenting as the vibrancy simply draws one to be expressive. I understand that the setting and models are entirely natural rather than superimposed. This in itself is so very impressive as the postprocessing has added an element of animated disbelief. It is kitsch without the bravado that the genre expects. I like that.

Yay! A Photo of the Week that I just love - well composed, expertly staged and shot and with the perfect title. The cat is even looking directly at the lens! Two big thumbs up!!