Fire and Mud

Michael and I have been friends for a couple of years now, and every year or so we get together for an epic, creative photofest. He is an awesome dancer and model who has created all kinds of crazy art with me in the past.

He has been growing out his hair for a very long time. One of my favorite parts of our shoots together were when I could fro his hair out into an enormous fluffy mass. Sadly, the time came for the hair to go. Michael decided to get rid of it with a bang! He called me up and we arranged a photoshoot during which his mom would shave off his famous hair. This was quite an event, so he asked that I wait to publish this blog until he surprised his friends with the new cut.

Before we could go ahead with the actual shaving, we immortalized his locks with a couple of fun photos.





Eventually we knew we couldn't stall the shaving any longer. Michael's mom came along to perform the buzz cut while his brother filmed and I photographed.



We decided to only go half way and create the tallest, fluffiest mohawk known to man. All of the hair stood on it's own using hair spray and a blow dryer.





The grand finale was a portrait using Michael's newly bald head and all 4 elements (earth, air, fire and water.) While Michael's mom poured water onto his head, my dad lit and controlled the fire. I lit this using studio lighting outdoors, right outside my garage studio. That way, I could use my black backdrop without bringing the fire inside. This took a lot of trial and error, but we are thrilled with how it turned out.