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| © Chris Anthony |
| GRAND PRIZE WINNER: From Anthony's Victims and Avengers series. Click photo for more images from the competition. |
Though he works as a commercial and music photographer, Chris Anthony made these eerily atmospheric portraits for a personal project. "This was part of a series of 27 images called Victims and Avengers," says Anthony, 36. "It deals with domestic violence and the repercussions for women and children who have been abused. It also relates to that moment when there is a final straw -- when the victims take matters into their own hands."
Anthony's photographs combine these themes with a painterly, 19th-century aesthetic. The 24x60-inch prints were shown at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, California, in early 2007; another individual show will run there from January 26 through February 16. His work has earned critical accolades, including a 2007 Lucie Award nomination. Anthony shot these images in 4x5 but says that scans were digitally stitched together as composites before they were output on an Epson Stylus Pro 7800 inkjet printer. "The compositing came out of necessity, because sometimes I would have the set in one place and the actors in the other," Anthony explains. "Most of the models are actually film actors I know here in Los Angeles."
A former film and video director, the Swedish-born Anthony has shot commercial work for clients including Sony PlayStation 3 and the bands My Chemical Romance and Modest Mouse. He sometimes uses a Mamiya medium-format camera with a digital back, but he prefers to work in large format on film. "I love the slow, methodical approach," he says. "I've been buying really old lenses -- like from the turn of the century -- and using them with my 5x7 and 8x10 cameras. Everything old is new again."
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