These Twisted Vintage Portraits Were Made Before Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop dropped in 1988, initiating the era of doubt and disbelief in photography. That same year, French artist Frédéric Fontenoy was capturing a set of images unbelievable in their own right, using a panoramic camera, ingenuity, and a willingness to run around the wilderness naked. Warped, twisted, yet clearly human characters dominate the series, entitled ‘Metamorphose’, framed by barren natural surroundings.

h/t: thecreatorsproject

Describing the shoot, Fontenoy tells The Creators Project, “Most of the photos are self-portraits. It was like dancing, two to three secondes in front of the camera, trying to create a ‘pre-human form,’ in landscape without any trace of humanity.”

‘Metamorphose’ was one of Fontenoy’s first photographic experiments, but today he continues to make surreal photographs, both fine art and by commission. There’s something primal and utterly curious about that early work that makes it worth considering in this age of effortless digital manipulation.