Early 2014 saw the inception of The Clayman. My friend and collaborator Jason Fowler contacted me with an idea for which he wanted some photography. Jason is a ceramisist by trade and thoroughly loves his material of choice, he also brandishes potent imagination. Which is likely why we work together so well. His idea was to apply the clay to himself as a prosthetic and photograph the result. Why you ask? Because it would look awesome on camera.
Photography by Patrick Walsh
So, on a freezing cold evening in a draughty garage, the man subjected himself to the further joy of covering his face and arms in what would only be temporarily lukewarm clay and sat for an hour while I dithered around on the camera and lighting. The resulting images speak for themselves.
The Clayman’s job was to sit, stand and pose. My job was to make the effort worth it. The idea was to isolate the Clayman in darkness so the lights were softened and the contrast was kicked into the stratosphere on the camera settings. We were limited in space so every effort was made to avoid any foreign object that would enter the edges of the frame. We resorted to using our 35mm f3.5-5.6 as it manage to crop out the surroundings nicely while also not detecting any reflected light from the garage door beyond, inconveniently painted white for maximum pain in the a$^&.
So from there it was decided that we go down the horror route and so Jason gave his best performance of anguish and pain. In actuality, The Clayman was merely just yawning. A handy tip to any photographer working with any non-model or non-actor, if they can’t scream, they can likely yawn which gives the same stressed look on their face.
The shoot lasted less than an hour and gave some great results. If anything, it is a testament to the cinematic value of clay. We will likely be using it again in the near future. By all accounts it is a very exfoliating experience for the subject.
Thanks to Jason Fowler for the idea and the patience.