Weird Beauty and 2D or not 2D series
My first experience with face-art was in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2012 that I had the idea of a whole project – a monochromatic series of portraits which combined graphics, shapes and optical illusions. The Weird Beauty series is a mixture of aesthetic beauty photography with recognizable forms and logos. In 2013, I continued the theme of face transformations inspired by color pop-art posters, the result is 2D or not 2D. The goal of this series was to make the model’s face absolutely “flat” like two-dimensional pictures using only make-up and light.

Alexander Khokhlov was born in Calcutta, India, on May 9, 1982. He is now based in Moscow and works with his wife Veronica. Alexander started photography in 2008 as a commercial studio photographer. His experiments with beauty portraits and art resulted in the acclaimed series Weird Beauty and 2D or not 2D made in 2012 and 2013.

The art-photography that he creates is always based on people transformation. In Alexander’s works the human identity takes a back seat, and the models are used as canvases for well-known shapes to trick your eyes. Each project is a huge team work, a great game with words, imagination and illusions. Of course, it is also a game with the audience.

In 2015 and 2016 Alexander received several awards: 25th Trierenberg Super Circuit (Gold Medal, Weird Beauty series), One Eyeland Photography Awards (Silver Medal, Shapes and Illusions series), Neutral Density Photography Awards 2015 (Bronze Medal, Shapes and Illusions series), International Photography Awards 2015 (Honorable Mention, Shapes and Illusions series).

LINKS:
Alexander Khokhlov’s website
Visual News
Bored Panda
Arch20
Beautiful/Decay
Juxtapoz
__________________________________

Ctrl+P: Photography taken offline is an exciting venture at Catherine Edelman Gallery inspired by the hundreds of photographs we see on blogs and online galleries. Started in January 2011, CEG introduces Chicagoans to new artists we find while searching the web, exhibiting a small selection of one person’s work every two months, taking the pictures offline and putting them on the wall. It is our goal that Ctrl+P will provide further exposure for these photographers away from the glow of a computer monitor and without the temptation to click to the next link. We hope you will join us by unplugging from the internet and visiting CEG to see these photographs the way they were intended — in print.