THE PHOTOGRAPHS
James H. Soul photographed the 7 Deadly Sins with a Cambo plate camera and 9x12 and 10x12cm negatives. Once the sets have been chosen, they are enlarged in the lab onto 60x50cm 300gr art paper by Ilford Hahnemühle, James then added several watercolour spots and the calligraphy by Ivan Castro, texts extracted from “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri where they describe each of the sins and the penances that those condemned must fulfil. Here are some details of each of the works.
GLUTTONY
Aubane could not breathe well or open his eyes because of the large amount of honey on his body, so James’ instructions became harder to execute. Brushed walnut ink was used for the sin Gluttony. The photographer’s signature and the parting line in the lower part is the only digital addition in this work.
by James H. Soul
ENVY
Mariona struggled to remove the pieces of mirror that were stuck to half her body. Envy was made with a classic manual press, like those used by Gutenberg. In the lower part there is a stamp that symbolises the 7 Deadly Sins.
by James H. Soul
LUST
Yainelys and Jess has more than
12 litres of milk mixed with thickener poured over their bodies before being shot by a special light that freezes the drops clinging to their bodies. The word Lust was written with pen and brush on gray, black and brown watercolors.
by James H. Soul
SLOTH
Ninnette was filled with dried mud, moss, mushrooms, leaves and a real deer skull to give a feeling of laziness. Part of the texts were painted with nogalinas and black ink.
by James H. Soul
PRIDE
Noelia was painted entirely black with shimmery blue eyeshadow. Horns and feathers were added, recalling the pride of Icarus. Gold leaf was used for the word Superbia which was written in Latin. All the negatives were burned with gunpowder, matches and a blowtorch to give the images more texture.
by James H. Soul
WRATH
With Wrath, two plates had to be superimposed to have more thickness on the sides to write the texts. Annalisa screamed furiously through the veil. These negatives were scratched, painted and burned more than the others.
by James H. Soul
GREED
Annalisa repeated sin after failing the model that came from Paris. They painted her body gold and she wore 2 bracelets, 2 necklaces, 2 rings, two of everything like the greedy. The photo in color was took by Frank Diaz since in the black and white ones the gold did not stand out, so James decided to make a montage. Avaritia in Latin was written with a red lacquer.
by James H. Soul
