Mud sculptures

In 2004 I experimented with nude women covered in mud for the first time. I was living in Austin Texas and did not have studio flashes yet, so I was shooting with hot lights. This is a nude where the mud is dripping down the woman’s body much like chocolate icing on ice cream. I really like the textural contrast between the mud and the smooth skin of the young woman.

Five years later, I tried it again in Switzerland – this time using studio flash. I still wanted to achieve the “icing” effect you get by keeping some of the body bare. I was particularly pleased when the mud dripped in such a symmetric and interesting manner:

We then proceeded to covering the entire body in mud and waited for it to dry. Once the mud started to dry it cracked as it could not keep up with the flexibility of the model’s skin. This resulted in a the following living sculpture: