Carsten Witte is a photographer from Hamburg/Germany. He started his career as a freelancer using his own studio. After this, he dedicated his work and him self exclusively to his perfect esthetics at taking shots of beautiful woman’s bodies exploring their eroticism and chasteness and the sensual play of shadow and light.
During Carsten’s photography career he produced a number of decidedly unsettling portraits. These portraits feature images of nude women, all center framed. These women are depicted by a painted skull onto the face. The series was all featured in black white which I believe is done to increase the shadow and darkness of the imagery to which Carsen wants the women to feel secure in the superposing shadows.
Carsten’s idea behind the series of images came from his thoughts of photography capturing the moment of beauty. Of the series he quoted: “One main idea behind my work is the belief that everything is constantly changing but photography can preserve the moment. Beauty is almost nothing without the knowledge of how fast it will fade…”.
Carsten Witte‘s beauties are naked but never bare. They rather seem to feel secure in the superposing shadows. The interpretation of his works is basically left to the beholder but as a matter of fact he is subtly directing the view through his mise-en-scène. An US magazine called him the „David Lynch of fashion photography“. His images are mystery plays, you never know exactly what is going on. Carsten Witte offers the parts but everyone has to solve the mystery himself.
One main idea behind my work is the belief that everything is constantly changing but photography can preserve the moment. Beauty is almost nothing without the knowledge of how fast it will fade…
We see that idea come to life in these photographs where attractive faces show marks of decaying skin and skulls. The contrast between the soft, beautiful portraits and the harsh skeletal overlays is mesmerizing.
Featured image: Carsten Witte – EbbaSkull#1. 50 x 40 cm (print size) / 54 x 44 (paper size). Edition of 20. Fine Art inkjet print on white 320 gsm, 100% alpha-cellulose Hamann Gloss Baryta paper.
