Photographer creates Byzantine-inspired portraits using gold leafs

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Photography-based artist Tawny Chatmon is known for her intimate photographic portraits that are often adorned in a gilded splendor reminiscent of a Gustav Klimt painting. However, for her latest series If I’m No Longer Here, I Wanted You to Know, the artist actually drew much of her inspiration from Byzantine art and religious iconography. 

After a portrait session—where the sitter is usually someone close to her—she refines and prints each digitally enhanced photo, which serves as the first layer for a piece. The artist then embellishes the portraits with overlapping layers of acrylic paint and 24-karat gold leaf.

Several works in this series are also ornamented with semi-precious stones, glass, and other mixed media. The regal, elongated figures glitter and sparkle in their gilt finery, posed in striking postures evocative of the tenderness and warmth shared in their bonds of love and friendship.

“For those who encounter my work, I want them to stop and pay attention,” Chatmon says. “Similar to works created during the Byzantine period, I would like them to have a spiritual experience. I’d like them to reflect, to look within, and for something inside of them to awaken or expand. I’d hope that they would experience feelings of grace, celebration, and magnificence and for the imagery to remain with them forever.”

Source - https://mymodernmet.com/tawny-chatmon-gilded-portrait-photography/

[Lucas 31,265]

Wait this is so so amazing 

[Nikolai Barrow 1,337]

Oooo I love it! Reminds me of Gustav Klimt.

[Wind Fly 458]

Very very beautiful!!!!

[Wind Fly 458]

55 minutes ago, Nikolai Barrow said:

Oooo I love it! Reminds me of Gustav Klimt.

Same!

[BradleyCooper 2,305]

Byzantine portraits usually makes me laugh because of the funny proportions, but these are gorgeous!

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2 hours ago, BradleyCooper said:

Byzantine portraits usually makes me laugh because of the funny proportions, but these are gorgeous!

Byzantine philosphy is one of the subjects I love the most and I find to be the most fascinating and inspiring (I majored in Philosophy in an Eastern European country, so by default this a very important part of it). The proportions in Byzantine iconography are meant to be disproportionate to show that the subjects portrayed exist in a different realm. They are not unusual-looking by mistake or because of lack of skill. Compare Byzantine icons with the carnal and much more physical sculptures from a Catholic church and you will understand exactly the difference. The Byzantine idea of icons portraying the invisible in a more methaporical and metaphysical way spill over into Islam, though they take it to a bigger extreme and denounce any palpable representation of God. Sidenote: the entire Europe still feels the influence of primary Christianity and Byzantine thought in ways we often times can't pick up, the Ancient Greco-Roman world was ultimately the gateway of Christiniaty in Europe and certain Prostestant churches even borrow ideas from the Byzantine thought.