Dark Angel Series - 1: Matthew Brandon

Recently I’ve begun shooting my Dark Angel series. The idea was to get together with as many male models as possible and interpret the theme in a different way for each. I kicked things off with a portrait session in my temporary home studio. My model for the day was Matthew Brandon, while make up duties were carried out by Maisie Palmer.

We started with a moodboard on Pinterest, then narrowed it down to the ideas that most interested us. Finally we had a look that was moody lighting, a dark vibe, and vampire make up. Of course, vampires are one of the archetypal “dark angels” - or at least they are in their modern portrayals. How often do you see the caring vampire, tortured by his soul, torn between hunger and a wish to not harm living beings? That’s what we went for with these images.

The first you will see in the gallery below is a fully lit shot of Maisie’s make up. I have to say she did a great job! This is the second time we’ve worked together, and we built the look up gradually to have a range of effects. Then a couple of the shots that made it through to the final cut. I’m really happy with the lighting on these; I had to rig up a temporary solution to create it, which I may share with you later. Matthew’s slightly creepy expression in the last one is what really sells it for me.

Let me know what you think of these images! Male models who are interested in taking part in Dark Angel, please get in touch. And if you’d like something similar to Matthew’s shots for your own portfolio, be sure to book in for a shoot.