Justin Kates – Naked Vampires and Dark Sexuality

Justin Kates takes us on a tour through a lush vampire world that is both romantic and dark. His images confront the viewer with a unique combination of beauty and horror. His work seems to express a wide range of sensibilities and styles including gothic, steampunk, heavy metal and modern punk. His images have a distressed textured look that imparts a distinct timeless quality.

Over the past year Justin has been facing some personal challenges as his beloved grandfather has been in the process of passing. Like many artists, he incorporates his personal experiences into his creativity and inevitably brings greater depth to his craft, as a result of lessons learned. We are already huge fans of Justin’s unique style and look forward to seeing what new visions his heart and imagination will offer.

The beauty and craftsmanship of Justin Kates’ art is unmistakable, even as it’s frightening and sometimes repulsive. If you have yet to experience the world of Justin Kates, prepare to be swept away by his grand vision that presents vampires and other dark creatures like royalty. You are about to enter a victorian fantasy full of nightmares, sexuality and larger than life characters.naked vampires by Justin kates

What is beauty?

A simple question with a very difficult answer. Beauty to me is something that walks a slightly darker path in life, something most people would reject but to take those things people consider beautiful and deconstruct them and expose a darker side, or corrode away the things that would normally fall into that category. Beauty to me is the shadows, negative space, the contrast and the texture and to take all these things to create my image of beauty. 

What do you want people to experience when they look at your images?

I once joked I wanted people to be turned on by my images but to feel guilty for being turned on. 

Could you tell us a little about your technique and philosophy in your work?

What are you trying to accomplish? I use grids on everything, studio wise my key lighting is always a beauty dish with a grid on a boom arm, and other light heads on c-stands and arms with grids. I have some soft boxes and half domes I will use for fill light, the strips I use as kicker lights to get an edge on my model. I really hate light spill, I want light exactly where I want it and nowhere else. I do a lot of post work from skin clean up to gradient mapping, adding texture and color profiles to give the image a specific look. If I can make an image look like a painting and keep the contrast and negative space in the areas I want, I can paint in highlights and sharpen some features. I want all my photos to look like a painting and not a snap shot.

Naked nude vampires by justin kates

If you could work on the ultimate creative project for a month (and had unlimited resources) what would you do?

Wow if I had everything I needed I would love to rent out a studio set, or even the old hospital in LA. I have always wanted to do a full art book based on medical horror and/or fetish depending on how you look at it. Soiled nurse uniforms and demented doctors, tortured patients, and antique everything! As many rusty old medical tools as I can find. A special FX team for makeup and a set designer. I think I could shock myself if I had the funds and crew to work on that for a month. I’m getting a little giddy framing shots in my head of nurses from hell and rusty mouth spreaders. 

Considering what you and your family are currently going through, is this effecting how you relate to your creative vision? If so, how?
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It has, my overall level of drive to create “new” and push the envelope has taken a back seat to everyday pay-the-bills and I try to keep in touch with my family. I’m a pretty open and honest person and being abandoned as a child, my Grandfather raised me. The man is the corner stone of my life and watching him slowly fade away has really crushed me. I think when one door closes another opens and soon I will take the pain and emotional trauma when the opportunity comes along and use it to try and push myself as an artist to the next level.

Naked nude vampires by justin kates

Check out the rest of Justin Kates’ art and photographer portfolio right here at Model Society. Also watch the video of vampires and other dark creatures. He can also be found at Model Mayhem and other creative websites.

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