46
UV PORTRAITS
W
hen was the last
time you saw a truly
original portrait? For
many of you reading
this, the answer will be the reason
you picked up this issue and why
you stopped on this page.
The UV Collection, produced by
photographer David Sheldrick and
award-winning hair artist Seung Ki
Baek, stopped me in my tracks when
I first saw them. Their mix of
pulsing, vibrant colour and hints of
majestic movement make for a truly
mesmerising combination.
What’s more, the stillness of the
models, appearing from the
darkness, with their fantastical hair
pieces drifting about their poised
expressions, perfectly encapsulates
the theme behind the images. The
series was inspired by creatures of
the deep and their magical
bioluminescent structures.
A chance meeting between David
and Seung Ki on a photoshoot for
Rush Hair led to the forming of a
great friendship and a creative
partnership that has produced some
of the most arresting portrait images
circulating on social media and
photography forums right now.
Created entirely using UV dyed hair
extensions, spray and makeup, and
shot using specialised UV lighting,
the collection cuts through the
plethora of all-too-familiar
portraiture shared online today. But
it took some time for them to find
an audience.
David shot these images back in
2017 he tells me, as part of Seung
Ki’s entry for the British Hair Awards.
‘We met while I was interning for a
photographer. They were shooting
Rush Hair’s entries for the BHA. I
kept in touch with him [Baek] and a
few years later, when I was no longer
assisting, we formed a friendship. By
chance, he lived close to me and we
began rock climbing together.
‘From there we just started
throwing ideas back and forth. We
were coming up with ideas that had
no commercial value behind them.
We just got creative and shot
whatever we wanted.’
The duo were keen to explore
working with UV light and as
fortune would have it, David had
recently won Broncolor’s NextGen
photography competition. The prize
was a full lighting set, with modifiers
including the company’s UV
attachment. The unique strobe
lighting modifier blocks all
frequencies of light that are visible to
the human eye, only permitting
ultraviolet light (around 300-315nm)
to pass through its surface. With the
right kit, David and Seung Ki created
this conceptual shoot using jellyfish
and other glowing lifeforms as their
inspiration. The eight final images
were entered into the competition,
but unfortunately they only made itLight up
the dark
When photographers form creative
partnerships with artists, magical things
can happen. Jon Devo dives into the
story behind an exciting series of
underwater-inspired portraits