Editor’s note: all of the following photos have been edited for content.
Gary Box is well-known for a lot of things. He’s a first-rate, award-winning photographer, with over 30 years of experience in the field. He wrote the first book on Photoshop specifically for photographers. He’s frequently a keynote speaker at the largest and most prestigious photographer conferences in the world.
Now, we might be adding “body paint artist” to that long list of accomplishments following the Box name.
Box started doing body paint about two and half years ago, he told Sapulpa Times in an interview this week. He says he’s since done at least 35 or 40 body paint models. “It pushes my art skills, and my photography skills and my compositing skills.”
Kenzie Lamb was a body paint model for Gary Box a year and a half ago when she portrayed the sultry Jessica Rabbit for a photoshoot. Her trademark red dress and long blue gloves were all painted and only a wig, high heels, and a vintage microphone were the physical props in the photos, which were shot in front of a green screen and then composited in Photoshop to look like the redhead was singing on stage to a nightclub full of gangsters.
Lamb published her amazement with her work on Facebook, and it reached the eyes of Gary Wolfe, the actual creator of both Jessica Rabbit and her klutzy long-eared husband, Roger Rabbit.
Wolfe was ecstatic about the quality of Box’s work. “Thank you so much for keeping my character alive,” he exclaimed, before jokingly adding “Maybe you could body paint me one day. Make me look more buff. And younger.”
In reality, morphing someone into a character made with body paint requires a lot of patience and skill, often beyond that of a regular photographer. “A lot of times, it’s 5-6 hours of painting, and then ten minutes of shooting photos,” Box said.
Monday morning at 9:00 AM, he began working on his latest project, transforming Sarah Richardson into the amazing Storm, from the famed X-Men comic books. “I thought it would be a lot of fun,” she said. “I have always wanted to try, but you have to find someone you’re comfortable with.”
Richardson is now in her early thirties, but Box did her high school senior photos years ago, and he says she was the first one who came to mind when he decided to paint Storm.
Storm’s “costume” is fairly simple, consisting of a black suit with gold trim. With a small sprayer, Box adds in abdominal muscles and a hexagonal pattern using a stencil. Richardson says the constant spray is an odd sensation on skin that’s already been painted black. “It’s cold,” she says. A cape is fashioned out of a black bedsheet, and then “Storm” stands in front of a green screen as Box instructs her in different poses, including short hops and forward lunges, hands raised almost like a monster, instead of a mutant. “This is where the magic happens,” he says.
The photos look great as they are through the viewfinder, even though nothing digital has happened to them, yet. Box says that’s intentional. “I try to do as much as I can with the camera,” he said. “Every minute I have to spend back there in Photoshop fixing mistakes is a minute that I’m losing money.”
After just ten minutes of shooting photos at a couple of different poses, Box believes he has the shot he needs. “I think we got it!” he says. By the time he sends the finished photo, the green screen has been replaced with storm clouds and Richardson looks more like Storm than ever. The photos are absolutely familiar, but not exactly what you’d find in the comics. “I’m a big believer in inspiration, not duplication,” he says. “I have a folder full of ideas, but I’ll always put some sort of variation or twist on it.”
Box says that every time he publishes a new body paint session on social media, women respond with comments like, “I wish I could do that, but I’m too afraid.” He says whether it’s body paint or boudoir photos, it’s more about shooting the emotion than anything else. “I’ve been told by some of my female photographer friends that with these types of sessions, I shoot more like a woman than a man. I take it as a very high compliment,” he says. “It is an art form, and the body is a canvas.”
