Yesterday I got another chance to visit mannakin.com, a location in Lincolnshire, England which has a large collection of discarded and new mannequins numbering in their thousands. Literally, 20,000!! Every so often, mannakin opens it's gates to photographers and who am I to miss an opportunity like this!
Arranged around the site are various arrangements of mannequins with an artistic leaning. Some of the stuff is maybe "NSFW" with innappropriately positioned heads and torsos. A few of the photographers I met yesterday were definitely freaked out!
Ever since I studied photography at school in the 80's, I've always had a soft spot for black and white photography. I used to stand in a darkroom for hours dipping my hands in obnoxious chemicals printing dodgy looking photos. I'm pleased to say these days, black and white photography is much more healthy and a click of a button in Photoshop is a more preferable way to go!
Here's a sample selection of what I managed to capture:
I, Mannequin
My homage to Isaac Asimov's sci-fi novel where rows of identical mannequins are arranged very much like the sci-fi film, I, Robot.
Discombobulated
Arranged around the site are some potentially quite disturbing mannequins. Legless, armless, headless, burnt or melted, some people could maybe find this image disturbing.
I could have sworn one of them winked at me!
Another row of ladies this time! One of them definitely had the eye for me!
Hands
This pile of arms and hands reminded me of the pictures I've seen showing the bodies of the victims of the Holocaust. Somewhat disturbing if you think about this image too much!!
Aliens?
This one reminded me of the closing scenes in the film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In pieces
I came to the conclusion yesterday that the owner of Mannakin, Roz is ever so slightly nuts, in a good way!
Forever melancholy
Some of the mannequins have brilliant make up effects and the realism is amazing. The expression on this mannequin is strangely melancholic.
Getting lucky with the light
The site is surrounded by trees and here the light bursting through the leaves and branches was a stroke of luck.
I'm in with the in crowd
Here I used a full frame fisheye lens to emphasise the wide angle distortion to add to the disturbing arrangement of the "models"
Scorchio
There's quite a few "insurance write offs" dotted around the site!
In the dark
I found this dark corridor with a few mannequins including this one covered in glittery stuff and small mirrors. I asked the owner if this one was for sale so I could use it for lightpainting but it turns out it's going nowhere!!
Death mask
In the same dark corridor, I faffed around with a flashgun held aloft and managed to capture this scary looking dude!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I like to collaborate with other photographers and occassionally shoot outside my comfort zone.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
Great shots. Eery felt like giallo film.
Thanks @jalentakesphotos the film reference was interesting to look at, thanks
Wow, the photos turned out amazing, I loved them all!
The 8th mannequin looks like a real woman, it's amazing.
Thanks for sharing these photos with us, I was delighted 🖤.
Thanks @milagroscdlrr yes some of the mannequins were scarily accurate!
Congratulations. Today's #monomad second place is yours.
Thank You very much for participating and for being part of the Black And White Community!
I loooooove them
Thank you @kitzune :-)