Graveyard Girls: A Photo Shoot with a DIY Dam, Water, Milk, and Flour-Covered Girls

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I’ve been living out of my car and driving all over the country to create new work. This past Sunday, I stopped near Nashville, Tennessee to see my friend and fellow photographer Marissa Bolen. While there, we collaborated to put together a photo shoot — a shoot that involved a homemade dam, water, milk, and girls covered with flour.

We found this huge hole in her backyard with a small puddle of water in it. We had some friends come over and help build a dam, and remove any roots and plants that would block the shot.

Once we dammed it up, we filled it up with water, and bought everything necessary for the shoot:

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Our friend Zach testing the water out
Our friend Zach testing the water out

We were planning on making them look like statues so we tested out different ways to do this, and ended up deciding on covering them in flour. Marissa made these beautiful crowns out of flowers and leaves and we spray painted them white. We picked out outfits and had the three models come over.

Me getting into the water to shoot
Me getting into the water to shoot

The water ended up being around three feet deep. We had them kneel so that it looked like they were more deeply submerged. We poured a gallon of milk into the water to make it less translucent and more white. We were going for a ghostly feel, and to create an atmosphere that looked cold and desolate.

We then covered the girls in flour and had them move between poses. We also had a friend lightly drop flour from above to add a misty atmosphere. The shoot went very well, and it was a total group effort.

Here are the photographs I created, titled “Graveyard Girls (2013)”:

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Here are the photographs Marissa shot:

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You can see more of our work on my and Marissa‘s Tumblr sites.


About the author: Kyle Thompson is a 21-year-old photographer based near Chicago. He’s passionate about photographing in forests and abandoned houses. You can find him on Facebook and Tumblr.

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