Artist José Cardoso had a vision and decided to act on it. Inspired by David Cronenberg and Aphex Twin, the photographer/artist wanted to create something absolutely nightmarish from a childhood toy and was able to accomplish this by using Play-Doh, creating deformed shapes, and then photoshopping them onto the faces of people.
Cardoso explains:
This is a collection of headshots where I try to explore not only the boundaries between classic photography and basic sculpting but also digital and analog image making.
I’m using regular caucasian skin color play dough for the “faces” and then I photoshop it on the model’s head.
I would like to think this project as a low budget tribute to old school Special Effects wich [sic] can be seen, for instance, on Cronenberg’s movies like ‘Videodrome’ and Chris Cunningham’s music videos like “Rubber Johnny”.
The end result is reminiscent of what we’d see from The Elephant Man or Mask. These are misshapen and inhuman faces that look like a single touch could radically shift the appearance. Check out some photos below and also watch the clip from “The Muppet Show” that immediately came to mind.
