“The Ballad of The One Winged Angels” is a “poem in digital art”, which I conceived after a trip to the War Museum in Copenhagen.
I wrote the verses that go with the photographs, playing on the number four (four verses, four pictures, and the names of the angels all starting with the letter “D” - which comes fourth in the alphabet). The “downward spiral” and hopeless setting is inspired by the works of Edward Gorey.
All pictures are made up of several elements. For example, the Dream model has been shot in my studio, while the rocks and the sea have been shot in Caorle (near Venice, Italy). The wing has been taken from a bird encyclopedia, and the flame and the sky are stock images.
I shoot my model against a black paper background which gives me a solid yet textured base to work with. Please note she’s holding a pencil and not a candle.
The background is extended to fill the entire canvas, positioning the model along with the Fibonacci spiral I use as a guide, and a first slight correction curve is applied.
Stock imaging is collected: some rocks I shot near a seashore, a stormy sky, a flame, a seagull wing.
I begin overlaying and masking all the elements, using selective curves to match the lightning of the stock footage to the shooting light set.
Background is added and masked, eventually casting shadows on the ground if needed.
The final color correction is applied, together with the lettering. After all four images are ready, I will tweak this final correction layer to make all four pictures go well together, with a matching shadows/lights ratio.
