No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.

Please find info about prints, credits and instructions for press at the bottom of the post.

Today I’m sharing the 2nd part of my new photo-project Hex 000000; ‘Gloss’.
To see the 1st ‘Matt’ part, please go here.

The works represent a photographic study of colour and human textures.
They also represent an expression of mood, a reflection of myself.
Hex 000000 is the computing code on web pages and image-editing programs for the colour Black. The name was chosen to focus on colour, rather than ethnicity.

A long black sleep
Descends upon my life
The fear, the insecurity
The self-doubt
Confusion and uncertainty
The loneliness
The hate
The longing for connection but inability to follow through
The silence
The darkness
The sleep
Black
Black
Black

I can no longer see anything
I am losing my remembrance
of the bad and the good…

CREDITS

I’d like to thank all of the participants in the project. In this part of the project you’ll find (in alphabetical order):
Becky O’Brien, Elise Bjerkelund Reine, Emma Farnell-Watson, Eunji Sung, Hayley, Lauren Fernandez, Ramona Reinvall, Rebecka Arnberg and Wonderdust Supertramp.

PRESS INSTRUCTIONS 

Please feel free to share the project with full credits and link back to the original post.
If you share any of the works on Instagram, please tag @benhopper.
You can grab all images from this Dropbox folder. 
Email me for interviews & additional more info on: therealbenhopper@gmail.com.
Visit my website on: therealbenhopper.com.

© 2013-2018 Ben Hopper. All rights reserved.

Those dark sounds are the mystery, the roots that cling to the mire that we all know, that we all ignore, but from which comes the very substance of art.

Please find info about prints, credits and instructions for press at the bottom of the post.

To see the 2nd part of this project please go here.

Since 2013, I’ve photographed more than 50 subjects covered in paint and mud.
What started as an innocent experiment, turned into a repetitive attempt to project my mood during a rather challenging period in my life.

Today I am sharing the first part out of two from this body of work I’ve slowly created. I call it Hex 000000.
The works represent a photographic study of colour and human textures.
They also represent an expression of mood, a reflection of myself.
Hex 000000 is the computing code on web pages and image-editing programs for the colour Black. The name was chosen to focus on colour, rather than ethnicity.

A long black sleep
Descends upon my life
The fear, the insecurity
The self-doubt
Confusion and uncertainty
The loneliness
The hate
The longing for connection but inability to follow through
The silence
The darkness
The sleep
Black
Black
Black

I can no longer see anything
I am losing my remembrance
of the bad and the good…

PRINTS

Prints from Hex 000000 are available for purchase. Please email me for more info: therealbenhopper@gmail.com.

You can also buy 2 signed posters on my shop.

CREDITS

I’d like to thank all of the participants in the project. In this part of the project you’ll find (in alphabetical order):
Ana Díaz Tirado, Arthur Cadre, Becky O’Brien, Ben Hopper, Catherine Desjardins-Béland, Celeste Bliss, Clara Prezzavento, Claudel Doucet, Eline Guélat, Emma Farnell-Watson, Emmanuelle LePhan, François Colarusso, Gonzalo Coloma, Jarrod Takle, Kate Alsterlund, Kei, Lauren Joy Herley, Lea Ved, Léonor Clary, Lewie West, Lysandre Murphy-Gauthier, Marie Astride Ducroquet, Mathieu Riel, Mieke Lizotte, Nadège St-Arnaud, Sandra Bérubé, Simon Murphy-Gauthier and Sorcha Finch-Murray.

Big thank you to Pierre Manning at Shoot Studio (Montreal). Thank you Phase One for helping out with the gear.

PRESS INSTRUCTIONS 

Please feel free to share the project with full credits and link back to the original post.
If you share any of the works on Instagram, please tag @benhopper.
You can grab all images from this Dropbox folder. 
Email me for interviews & additional more info on: therealbenhopper@gmail.com.
Visit my website on: therealbenhopper.com.

© 2013-2018 Ben Hopper. All rights reserved.

Yesterday evening, a photograph I posted on Instagram from the shoot with Eline was removed 5mins after. I received a notification from Instagram telling me it was removed because it “doesn’t follow their Community Guidelines”.
It was a fine art nude photograph of Eline, a female circus artist, improvising a movement on ropes.
I shared the photograph with both her nipples covered using Instagram’s logo, as I always do.
I can’t see how it contradicts any of IG’s Community Guidelines…but I’m worried and I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

I’ve been photographing nudity since the start in 2007.
When I joined IG in Nov 2011, my 1st account was removed the following year because of the nudity I shared from my project ‘Naked with Masks’.
IG was a year old and the whole issue was a quite blurred still. When I tried to get in touch with them to get my account ‘resurrected’, there was radio silence. I had to start a new account and since then I’ve been censoring my own photos prior to sharing them.
I’ve been doing the same on Facebook for years.

I felt it was so dumb to cover the human body. To me, our bodies were such a magnificent beautiful thing. Why do they force us to cover it? Because some people might find it offensive? What’s offensive about a body? When you legitimize the phenomena of people being offended by the human body, it really develops a self-loathing persona. We learn to hate our bodies. We learn to be insecure with our bodies from the earliest age.

Can you imagine what it does to the psyche of people if a photograph of a body part offences them? That’s where perversions and fetishes are born. That’s where rape is born.
They might tell you children may see it. Are we trying to lie to our children about the reality? About what and who we are? We were all children; do you remember us giving the slightest fuck about nudity? We knew 3 times more than our parents did about this crap at the age of 10.
Nudity censorship, in my opinion is one of the Internet’s biggest problems. We wave it off, adding some self-made censors when posting our photos, but the problems goes deep.

I will not have my artistic integrity shut down. I will not cave to this BS.
These things only encourage me to keep fighting, and fighting harder.
We can change it all. I urge all of you creatives out there that work with nudity, do not give up.

We are making a difference. From mensuration blood to breastfeeding, one element at a time.
It’s time to step out of these dark times. It’s time to embrace who we are; Human Fucking Beings <3.

Last year, during my Transfiguration exhibition at The Roundhouse (London), I was interviewed for their blog. I’m sharing it much later, just because I forgot then, but I still find this interview interesting now:

What inspired you to take up a career in photography?
I always knew I wanted to do something creative, but I wasn’t sure what or how. When I was 23, I started working in an office importing photography equipment, which wasn’t fulfilling.

Three and a half years later, I quit, bought a camera and started taking photographs. I photographed weddings and events with a friend, for the money. At the same time, my brother started training in the circus, so I started photographing him and his friends.

A year later when I moved to London, it inspired me to start shooting circus artists, dancers and performers, along with interesting characters, for example, those in London’s alternative and fetish clubs.

What was your inspiration for Transfiguration?
Transfiguration is a combination of the words “transformation” and “figuration”, so it’s a reference to the figure and the transformation of the figure. It also links to the New Testament definition, when Jesus’ appearance turns to ‘radiant glory’, making the transition from something regular to something divine.

Transfiguration, is also inspired by painter and performance artist, Oliver De Sagazan, and his performance of the same name, where he throws layers of clay and paint on himself in front of a live audience.

You’re known for using the body as the focus, what fascinates you about the human form?
Well for me, it’s definitely a fascination. I see it as an admiration of beauty. I’m constantly trying to find ways to explore what you can do with beauty, that’s also why I work with circus artists and dancers in this project specifically.

Why did you work with contortionists and circus performers in this project?
At first, I started experimenting with dancer Alejandra Baño, using the black body paint and powders. The results were amazing. I later photographed another dancer called Lauren Taylor, but only when I did a session with my circus artist friend Jonathan Fortin, did I realise it should be turned into a project. Jonathan is really into the idea of ‘being in a state of presence’ or what the Spanish call “Duende,” which is like an outer body experience or heightened state of emotion and expression induced by performance.

After Jonathan, I photographed contortionists Leilani Franco and Shakurideen (Bonetics). I realised there was a good combination between the animalistic side and the abstract forms people are able to create where you can’t tell a leg from an arm.

Your work often involves nude subjects, is there a difference in the way you approach a project like this?
Most people aren’t comfortable with being photographed nude, so the first thing is to find people who are, and for me it’s all about trust, as people are trusting you to take their photo and trusting that these photos will come out a certain way. Dancers and circus performers are used to working with their body, and share the same fascination with the human form, so it was easier.

Which subjects or avenues are you looking to explore next?
I’d like to continue working with contemporary circus and dance and develop ideas from my project Naked with Masks, photographing interesting characters you wouldn’t usually see in their birthday suits, including people from the fringes of society.

What are your tips for young people starting out in photography?
Do what you love doing and people will pick up on your passion. If you try to live up to other people’s expectations, it’s likely that you’ll end up doing something people have seen before, so you need to find your passion and keep working on that.

Also hustle. Hustle, hustle, hustle. You need to approach people, and get your work out there. It sounds cheesy, but you also have to believe in yourself, even if you’re not there yet, keep working at it, and be patient.

Are you excited about the exhibition?
I’m very excited! London has been my home for the last eight years and I’ve had an ongoing relationship with the Roundhouse, so I’m happy to finally exhibit my work here.

I’m also really glad to be a part of CircusFest, which is amazing, and one of the most important contemporary circus events in the UK. A lot of the artists in the programme are also graduates from the London National Centre for Circus Arts, so it’s nice to highlight their talent and be part of that community.

You can find the original interview on The Roundhouse’s blog.