Cory VanderPloeg’s concept for this beauty series was simple: show a lot of skin. The Canadian-born, New York City-based fashion photographer spends most of his time assisting for portrait photographer Platon, so his own projects are often quick studies of the body akin to figure drawing.

For this shoot, featuring model Dani Seitz, VanderPloeg started off with a long-lens portrait, and, over the course of two hours, got up close and more abstract to give variety to the series. VanderPloeg likes to do these exercises with very little production: no makeup, no styling and all natural light, using v-flats and negative fills to control the light and create more depth. In post-production he added his own digital grain created from 3200 film.

The series was featured late last year in PDN and Rangefinder’s competition The Body, garnering First Place in the amateur division. See the other honorees (also NSFW) at celebratethebody.com. – Jacqui Palumbo

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