Fine art photography at Nude Nite – America’s largest nude art exhibition
Fine art photography at Nude Nite – America’s largest nude art exhibition showing fine art photography, fine art, performance art, figurative art, and interactive installations.
The art exhibition shows over 200 works by artists from 52 states. It is held annually in Orlando FL and Tampa FL. The 3-nite destination event takes place in a 20,000 square foot pop up art gallery setting, where thousands of art enthusiasts view and purchase artists’ works.
Nude Nite – a groundbreaking pop up art exhibition
Nude Nite is a groundbreaking pop up art exhibition experience built for contemporary culture. It was created 18 years ago with world-class body-themed entertainment, DJ music, and interactive installations. That’s what gives Nude Nite its sexy, fun, empowered vibe.
My entry for the 2022 Nude Nite was my second time participating. My first time participating was a performance art installation in 2015. My performance art was untamed body arts, but not as wild and crazy as the performance art of Marina Abramović!
The 2022 project was different. I was excited to submit my fine art photography at Nude Nite for consideration by the exhibition!
The artwork was conceptualized by me and a few creative friends. Alicea and I decided to partner for this fine art photography at Nude Nite. Alicea is a master of many talents – she is an incredible makeup artist, special FX prop creator, and dancer. I have worked with her in the past and it was exciting to work with her again for this fine art photography idea. Our model, AK, was a dancer and friend of Alicea.
Wondering how our idea for Nude Nite came to be?
Well, this is how it all went down. Alicea and I are both fascinated by the different classes of angels, and this concept was to explore Seraphim angels with their almighty power and presence. We would talk for hours about Old Testament angels, about archangels being so mighty in their presence. Those who see them, like the Virgin Mary, would fall to their knees and pray believing they were going to die. Can you imagine the power that they must behold? Today, we tend to think of angels as cute, sweet cherubs, but there are so many more classes of angels than that.
We both loved the visual of six winged beings, among the first hierarchy of angels next to the throne of God. According to the Old Testament, they have six wings: one pair for flying, another covering the face, and the third covering the feet.
After some discussion and planning, we went to work. We had our own idea of what our angel would look like. Alicea created the mask. The wearer, AK, would be blind while wearing the mask. Alicea also created the sheer, red diamond gloves, which symbolized the blood on their hands. Finally, Alicea painted all the eyes on AK’s body with body paint. It was a tedious and time-consuming process, but it was so worth it! The eyes around the body represented the visual of angels with eyes flying around them, encircling them.
Our original idea was to create the photograph and accompany it with performance art, where AK would be led through a crowd by the hand, blind to what was going on around her, blood on her hands. Ultimately, we decided to skip the performance art portion of the concept. One reason was the logistics of wearing the large wings through a crowd was complicated. And after we saw the photograph, we felt the fine art photograph was strong enough on its own.
Photoshoot Day Finally Arrived
On the day of the portrait session, we met in my portrait studio downtown nice and early. It took about 6 hours to prepare for the shoot itself.
After all the body paint was finished and the makeup was done, AK adorned the large set of angel wings. Then I began shooting. I built up a few different scenes, and we flowed through them for an hour or so, stopping for a pizza break in the middle.
I used some old film techniques, like shooting through a pane of glass smeared with Vaseline, to get different effects and to enhance our original ideas. There is something about a physical effect shot with a camera like that, as opposed to adding it afterward, that can truly enhance the technique and quality of fine art photography work.
It was a huge team effort to create these photographs. After the photoshoot, I chose a few portraits to retouch. I got to work, blending seams in the gloves, enhancing color, and more, making everything just perfect. And then I realized, I wanted to add another touch.
The wings AK was wearing, although large and beautiful, could be more, and I knew I could do it with some smart editing and Photoshop. I wanted to mimic the six wings in the mask with the wings she was wearing. With some high-level Photoshop skills, I duplicated the wings and AK became a whole being that was almighty and powerful.
I Am Proud of Our Work!
I am proud of the work we did, from start to finish. Finally, we submitted our work and were accepted for the show! It was amazing to see it on the wall. I always love to see how curators hang shows.
Alicea, AK, and I went together to the show to see it hung. All in all, it was an amazing experience.
What kind of fine art photography at Nude Nite do you want to see next year? Let us know in the comments.
