Nick Leoni Studios · An ongoing series
Light & Body
A separate, ongoing body of experimental work. Light projected and painted onto the body, built entirely on set. Image as art, not just likeness.
Light & Body
The statement
Image as art, not just likeness
This is the part of the work I make for its own sake. Not a portrait of a man, but a picture built around him: light projected and painted across the body, color thrown by gels and shaped on set, until the frame stops being a likeness and becomes its own thing.
Every image here is built in the room, in the moment. The color you see is gelled studio strobe and projection, placed and balanced on set. It is lit, not faked, then refined by hand until it is right, refined, not faked. Nothing is stitched together afterward.
It is its own body of work, kept apart from the portraits on purpose. The commercial work is made for you. This series is made to see how far the light will go.
The series · 61 frames
Selected frames
Open any frame to see it at full size. Every image is his, shown unfiltered.
How the work is made
Lit, not faked
The color you see is not a filter. It is gelled studio strobe and projected light, placed and balanced on set, in the moment. That is the part decades of doing this buys you: I can build a frame around a man until the light itself becomes the subject.
Then each image is refined by hand, with care, until it is right. Refined, not faked. What you see is what we made in the room, finished properly.
Commissions & collaboration
Want to make something like this?
Experimental work like this starts with a conversation. Tell me what you have in mind, and I will tell you exactly how we would build it, on set.