Pizza Luca for '(not) Naked with Masks' by Ben Hopper
Pizza Luca
To date, I’ve done 55 photo sessions for ‘Naked with Masks’.
12 years in the making and photos from more than 1/3 of these sessions weren't included in the project.
When I photographed Luca, we tried 2 different masks near Wapping in London. The photos came out pretty cool, but something didn’t feel 100% there.
A week later, we decided to try again. Luca, being an artistic Italian obsessed with Italian food, decided he wants to try to make a mask from a pizza cardboard box.
We went to the bank of River Thames near Wapping and gave it another try. It was a lovely hot sunny summer early afternoon.
The mask, a triangle cut and glued pizza box with red Bristol paper covering, ended up looking like a CGI model which felt unique. We were much happier with that image and decided to archive the previous shoot.
The final photograph that ended up as part of 'Naked with Masks' was photographed at the exact same spot, 20 minutes later. To our surprise, the rock on which Luca stands was almost entirely covered by water due to high tide. We managed to take the winning photograph seconds before it disappeared completely under the water.
July 29, 2014. Wapping, London, UK.