Synopsis:
Daughters of Darkness is a collection of fine art portraits of women in corpse paint. A nod to black metal and doom album cover art, Daughters of Darkness was photographed over 10+ years, with more than 400 models from all over the world, almost all of which did their own corpse paint and are fans of black metal. Daughters of Darkness features many celebrities, actresses, musicians, and models (some under the cover of corpse painted anonymity) all of whom donned only corpse paint for this book.
Photographed by internationally renowned music and fine art photographer Jeremy Saffer, this project combines both his music photography and fine art photography worlds into a single project, which was conceived to capture the memory of flipping though albums in a music store and buying albums based entirely on the albums cover art (which often featured a nude portrait, someone in corpse paint, or both) prior to knowing the music or the band. Like the music that inspired it, Daughters of Darkness shows the duality of finding beauty in dark imagery, and finding darkness within beauty.
Edition:
Bathory Edition Bundle [Signed w/ Slipcase]
Triggers:
- Nudity – I feel like this one goes without saying, but I’m gonna say it anyway
- Blood
My Thoughts:
I really like Black Metal. And I really like photography. I really like the melodramatic insanity of a lot of Black Metal photography. I am not frightened of nudity or corpse paint. Hence this book seemed like an obvious purchase for me. I mean what 30-something Black Metal fanatic doesn’t want a ladies-in-corpse-paint coffee table book? Don’t answer that. No matter what, I wanted it. So I got it.
And the fact that there’s an intro by Dani Filth didn’t hurt. I love that man. Give me everything he does (except Cradle of Fear; I tried re-watching that one a while back and I just can’t do it anymore. Shame – I loved it when I was a teenager).
To begin with, Jeremy Saffer is an incredibly talented photographer.
He shot one of my absolute favorite Dave Mustaine photos probably ever:
I mean, really, you should just check out his work. He’s fantastic. He’s also got a really gorgeous shot of Ice-T right there in his gallery that I had never seen before. You must look.
Daughters of Darkness is no exception to his fantasticness. This is a gorgeous book. I mean, I love a tasteful nude as much as anyone else, but when “tasteful” gets thrown out the window I’m 100% more into it. Give me the artistry of corpse paint over Cindi parked in front of a roaring fire any day. Actually, can we get some corpse paint for Cindi? That sounds nice.
Not only did this package include the book, which is beautifully hardbound and slipcased, but it also included a vinyl soundtrack featuring some of Black Metal greats, a pop socket, some guitar picks, stickers, and stacks of gorgeous photograph prints in two different sizes. They’re all incredible – I legit can’t figure out which ones I want to hang up right now.
Each photograph is perfectly lit, and there is a lot more physical variety in the models than one might have expected. These are definitely not cookie cutter models. And I love that these women are all lovers of Black Metal music, and that each did their own corpse paint. I feel like that really shows in the variety of styles – just like those familiar with cp should know to expect, it is an expression of the artist – there’s not a design or pattern to follow.
Rating:
If this kind of art is your bag, you should really grab a copy. It really is stunning.
Daughters of Darkness Photographed by Jeremy Saffer Introduction by Dani Filth Rare Bird Books Published: October 13, 2020 ISBN: 9781644281239 Hardcover 148 Pages Photographer's Website
