Jean-Luc Vertut – Apparition (2015)

If you browse Vertut’s portfolio with any attention, you’ll notice that beyond his preoccupation with the nudes-in-landscape motif this image feels different than his previous work.

Were I a betting man, I’d wager he’s been gorging on benoitp‘s work. Certainly, not a bad thing–and although I appreciate the straightfowardness of this image over Paile’s endless barrage of hallucinogenic visual fugue-states–I’m just not sure that the flash here is strategic enough or appropriately in harmony with the scene to serve. I love the idea and I think sans the strobe it might’ve worked; with it, however, what was clearly intended as a grace note, cacophonously muddles things.