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Melbourne-based photographer Bill Gekas makes beautiful portraits of his 5-year-old daughter, posing in the scenes of the classic paintings by artists like Caravaggio, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Raphael or Velazquez. A self-taught photographer started focusing on portraiture in 2005, when he switched from a 35mm film to digital photography. Bill describes his style as “portraiture with a fine art aesthetics”: although he does a great job retouching and setting the pictures up, you also cannot help but admire his beautiful daughter’s concentration and deep looks.
Bill says what draws him most to portraiture is the “emotive, atmospheric, almost surreal nature of it“. Every picture he takes is always meticulously pre-planned: “The key to executing a shoot like this is to have it all planned before the subject enters the scene, the lighting, props, composition etc. From thought to finished post processed shot ready for display a typical shot can average a total of 8 hours,”he says. Take a look at how he and his daughter bring the old paintings back to a new life!
