Credit: Laurent La Gamba
An artist managed to make his friends and family ‘disappear’ – by blending them in with their surroundings using paint. Laurent La Gamba’s camouflage means his models appear to be hovering over different parked cars. La Gamba, who used three BMWs and two Porsches for his work, shot each photo in the Pyrenees, southern France, where he has a studio.
Artist’s viewpoint
“Each shoot takes about a day. The people who model in my set are my friends and family. My friends Kerri and Wesley Ranger happily volunteered to be painted along with my son, Raphael La Gamba,” says the artist.
La Gamba has described his photos as “procryptic”, a word that normally defines the protective coloring in insects used to camouflage against enemies. “I was also looking for a term that could translate the French word ‘homochromie’ which comprises this idea of ‘chromatic merging’,” says the artist. “Then, I came to this idea of defining my art as ‘procryptic’.”
By the numbers: 2
La Gamba spends two hours painting each model with acrylics so they can blend in with what is behind them. “They make me proud and I have great fun in the process of making them,” says La Gamba. “Some people laugh, some people admire it – others think it is software-generated, so there is really a wide variety of reactions.”
To see more of his work, visit his site at www.laurentlagamba.com
Check out these videos of La Gamba’s work in action.
