Please go to my new blog at THEREALBenHopper.com/blog to see new pictures.
The blog here at benhopper.wordpress.com isn’t active anymore. Ben x

Hey guys!

Although this blog had more than 40,000 views(!!!) since July 2010, I am now going to post from my own domain.

Please go to my new blog at http://THEREALBenHopper.com/blog.

I will no longer write in here (http://benhopper.wordpress.com/)

Thank you!

Ben

Please go to my new blog at THEREALBenHopper.com/blog to see new pictures.
The blog here at benhopper.wordpress.com isn’t active anymore. Ben x

These videos & pictures are from a day (August 22, 2010) we spent in Brighton (UK) shooting for my series Naked Girls with Masks on a strange 21°C SUPER humid rainy day! We had 2 locations; Brighton’s beach & Devil’s Dyke (up the hills). There was mist everywhere and it just made everything magical!

More info on original post Naked Girls with Masks

Here are videos by my good friend Amber Vaks:

And some behind the scenes pictures by Amber Vaks:

On Brighton beach

Kris Wlodarski, Creator of the 'Cone/Bandage-Masks'

Ben Hopper

At Devil's Dyke (Brighton, UK)

Adam James Joyce & Kris Wlodarski preparing the girls

At Devil's Dyke (Brighton, UK)

And here are some pictures by Kris Wlodarski (Creator of the ‘Cone/Bandage-Masks’):

On Brighton beach

At Devil's Dyke (Brighton, UK)

At Devil's Dyke (Brighton, UK)

At Devil's Dyke (Brighton, UK)

Adam worked hard as an assistant!

Please go to my new blog at THEREALBenHopper.com/blog to see new pictures.
The blog here at benhopper.wordpress.com isn’t active anymore. Ben x

A long intense debate started off on my facebook page about a picture of nipples I’ve uploaded accompanied with the following text: “I wonder why people make such a big deal out of female nipples. They should be evenly exposed!”
It took the miserable pathetic impotents pricks who are offended from the look of human nipples just one day to report this picture and have it removed. I salute you, cocksuckers.
Here’s the picture for both offended and happy nipple-lovers (I do not discriminate) …enjoy:

Please go to my new blog at THEREALBenHopper.com/blog to see new pictures.
The blog here at benhopper.wordpress.com isn’t active anymore. Ben x

Words by Alix Fox

Ben Hopper is a mask-ermind! ‘Naked Girls with Masks’ is the latest project by this hotter-than-wasabi up-and-coming London-based fine art photographer, which features over ten different stunning, nude models wearing surprising, comical, and sometimes grotesque full-head masks.

You’ve heard of masked balls…but these shots are all about masked boobies! Yet in addition to being undeniably sexual, they’re also playful, disturbing, and thought-provoking: a parody of the way in which human beings usually present themselves, they beg the question – why do we reveal our faces, yet hide our bodies from view? And what happens when that arrangement is turned on its (masked) head?

The photographs just exhibited at ACT ART 8, a huge underground group art show, which took place in Angel, Islington on Friday 9^th July (www.actart.co.uk)

The project is ongoing, and Ben is looking for journalists who want to report on his work, as well as gallery owners and fine art dealers interested in arranging further exhibitions with him.

The full story behind the photos, resources for reporters, and Ben’s contact info is all listed below.

To view full PDF Catalogue please click here: Prints catalogue part #01 (July, 2010)

Mask by Escapade.co.uk

Mask by Jules Newman (Ghoulia's Peculiars)

Mask by Aste Amundsen for Tom Baker

Mask by Skot Reynolds (GRAVE INDUSTRIES)

Mask by Escapade.co.uk

Mask by Aya Husni Bey

Mask by Oliver Spiers for Hélène Atsüko

RESOURCES FOR JOURNALISTS

Please email Ben for high-resolution samples from ‘Naked Girls with MasksNaked Girls with Masks’ for use in print at info@THEREALBenHopper.com.

They MUST be credited to Ben Hopper, www.THEREALBenHopper.com.

Low-resolution samples from ‘Naked Girls with Masks’ for use online are available here, and again must be credited to Ben Hopper, www.THEREALBenHopper.com.

Please let Ben know if you cover his work. He’ll be chuff-chuff-chuffed as a little steam engine!

Naked Girls with Masks on Bizarre Magazine

Sept Issue 166 (out August 3rd-31st, 2010)

PRINTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE

30×20” Fine Art prints available each at £620 (Limited Edition of 50)

It is also possible to choose a specific number out of 50 if you’re interested, as long as it’ll be available still.
(A full PDF catalogue containing more pictures that will be available for purchase will be ready very soon!)

The ten 30×20” used for display at ACT ART 8 exhibition on Friday July 9th, are available at £95 each (regular photo paper, holds colour for 70 years)
They are all the pictures displayed above in this post.

INFORMATION ON BEN

Ben Hopper is on a mission to create as many remarkable timeless images designed to overwhelm; his work has featured in magazines and exhibitions everywhere from Spain to Jordan, Switzerland, France, Germany and Italy. He lives in London, and originally hails from Israel, but has no desire for his projects to be weighed down with the heavy politics and negativity that’s sadly often associated with the region; instead, he wants to forge new, positive connotations by taking pictures filled with explosive movement, stylish humour, and intriguingly odd-yet-stunning scenarios.

Ben began his quest in 2007. After spending several years working for an Israeli trading company that specialised in importing photographic equipment, the restrictive, business-like nature of the job drove him to breaking point; desperate to unleash his creative spirit, Ben took advantage of the one perk his role afforded him by buying a camera at cost price, then jacked in his job and set off to Europe in search of freedom, adventure and pictures that packed a punch (and that’s punch with an illicit bottle of rum tipped into it). He quickly rose to prominence: images he captured of his brother and his friends – all circus performers in Madrid and around the world – were snapped up by publications all over Europe, while highly respected Australian mag Kurv published Ben’s photos in an exclusive Barbie-themed issue guest-edited by the iconic doll. Multiple exhibitions followed, including a showcase called Miniscule, in which the 200 pieces of art displayed were all smaller than a matchbox. He’s also worked with magazines and newspapers as diverse as Supersweet, Anglomania, and The Chap, in addition to contributing to several books.

“My photographic style is always evolving – I never want to take predictable, jaded pictures – but I particularly love the challenge of working solely with available light, and capturing bodies in motion”, says Ben. “I like every element of my compositions to fascinate; it might the energetic, quirky image of a nude woman in a moose head jumping into the air that first arrests the viewer, but then they notice interesting elements in the background too. I want everything about my photographs to provoke comment and exclamation. And I consider ‘What the fuck..?!’ to be a compliment!”

Ben is currently in-house photographer for two of the UK’s most notoriously trend-setting alternative clubs: The Last Days of Decadence and White Mischief.

HOW TO CONTACT BEN

Ben is available for interviews and friendly chats, and has open ears for all ideas.

Phone: +44 (0) 75 336 333 80 (London, UK)

Email: info@THEREALBenHopper.com

Gmail: THEREALBenHopper@gmail.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/BenHopper

Facebook: facebook.com/THEREALBenHopper

Website: http://THEREALBenHopper.com

MORE JUICE ON ‘Naked Girls with Masks’

From an article by Alix Fox in Bizarre magazine, www.Bizarremag.com

‘Just like Jim Carey’s character declares in the movie The Mask, these shots of scorching nekkid chicks in crazy headgear are “Smmmmmokin’!” They’re from a series of images called ‘Naked Girls with MasksNaked Girls with Masks’ (does what it says on the chuffin’ tin, dunnit), by London-based photographer Ben Hopper. “The whole project kicked off back in July of 2009, when I was snapping some pics of a stunning young lady called Cat Chappell and her girlfriend Diana,” explains Ben. “We were at my friend Alan’s house, and he happened to have loads of costumes and masks lying around. Cat’s back is covered in an amazing tattoo by Xed Le Head, who’s famous for inking hypnotic geometrical patterns, so I persuaded her to show if off my stripping to her birthday suit and sticking a mask on her head. I loved the effect; her perfect figure reminded me of the nude supermodels in Helmet Newton’s notorious black-and-white photos, and it was so unusual to see someone reveal their body yet hide their face, when usually it’s the other way round. I sought out other models mostly by using social networking sites, although Hana – who appears wearing both a grotesque scary rabbit head and a Venetian mask – bumped into me at a Torture Garden fetish party. She was wandering around topless with a mask on at the time, so she was made for the job!”

“The various masks came from all sorts of places. An octopus-shaped monstrosity borrowed from a performer named Tom Baker arrived still soaked with his sweat from a show the night before, and another mask was saturated with water: its owner had given it a bath to try and clean off the layers of grime and gunge acquired during an adventurous trip to Download festival that weekend! I got an artist called Skot Reynolds (aka Grave Industries) to transform an Ikea lampshade into a spooky skull headpiece by drawing on it, while Canadian mask-maker Douglas Witt grafted for hours to deliver three custom-made creations to me. I was quite obsessive about the need for masks to cover the models’ faces completely; I wanted to separate the girls’ bodies and brains entirely. This meant that a lot of the mask-crafters had to work at much bigger sizes than they were used to, which was a fun challenge for everyone!”

What’s next for Ben? “I’ve been working with a lot of unusual performers and contemporary circus artists lately, including contortionists and acrobats from world-famous Montreal group The 7 Fingers (Les 7 Doigts de la Main), who are like a renegade version of Cirque du Soleil. Every audience lucky enough to catch their shows inevitably absolutely raves about them – their routines are truly mind-blowing! I’m fixated on the idea of what could be achieved by creating high-end fashion editorials and glossy commercial advertisements with that kind of imagery; supple, sinuous, finely-honed bodies, clad in incredible outfits, and moving in amazing ways or forming surreal-looking shapes…that would look incredibly powerful. Combining all those intensely sense-stimulating factors would result in almost overwhelming pictures. I imagine people flicking disinterestedly through a magazine, then unexpectedly being gripped by the impact of one of my photographs, and it being impossible for them not to sit up and pay attention…and then impossible for them to forget what they’ve seen. I want to create fashion images that make people gasp.”

Ben’s also been focusing on a project involving beautiful women with armpit hair, featuring none other than singer (and fiancée of Neil Gaiman) Amanda Palmer. We’re more ‘Sure’ than a leading brand of underarm anti-perspirant that the resulting photographs will blow us away when they’re unmasked.

HUGE THANK YOU for all models, mask makers, Escapade.co.uk, ACT ART (Oliver & Marc), Alix Fox, Mad Alan and everybody else who helped me to make this happen. If I forgot to mention anyone, I’m sorry! I will probably come back to this post in the near future and update it with more details on the masks, models, locations etc. This project is getting richer by the day with amazing collaborations between beautiful women, amazing masks and kind people who appreciate my art. I am so grateful! Ben x