Hey kiddies!

This is my recent photo project JEKYLL & HYDE.

The star and producer of this project was my friend Chad Hawks. Chad previously played Jack the Ripper for me.  He was also the producer for my Lovecraft project INNSMOUTH.  We staged JEKYLL & HYDE as a triptych of 3 images: Before, Mid-Transformation, and After.

Make-up effects were created by my friend J. Anthony Kosar at Kosart Effects.

Demian Vela, as always, was on set to assist.

Lab props were loaned to us by Pamela Coggins at Noir Oddities on 39th.

And we staged this photo project in the beautiful Victorian home of Kent Dicus and Michael Ohlson.

Thank you to everyone, especially Chad, for making this project a reality!

JEKYLL & HYDE is included in my upcoming Horror Photography book from Dark Regions Press.  You can pre-order your copy on the Dark Regions Press website!

See you next time!

Hi kiddies!

This is my new Horror photograph called CRONE.

This project was produced by Jeff Simon.

The SPFX witch mask was made by Midnight Studios FX.

The witch, in Jungian terms, is the archetype of the devouring mother. The anti-mother.  So of course, I gave my own mother Carol Hoffine the title role – despite the fact that she is one of the greatest moms of all time.

When I was 10 years old my Mom came to our school for a classroom Halloween party.  The other moms dressed up as cute characters, like Snoopy and Raggedy Ann. My Mom came as the witch from the original Black Sabbath album cover.  She scared some of the kids so badly that she had to leave.

Here she is trying on the costume for my shoot:

The baby head is a doll’s head.  I painted it and glued on snippets of my own hair.  My wife Jen glued on fake eyelashes for me.

Brenna Hoch from 3rd Street Asylum did the make-up for my mother’s hands.

My pal Demian Vela, as always, was on set to assist.

The witch mask was foam-filled and unable to wear.  So after photographing my Mom, we moved the witch head into her exact position.

I combined my Mom with the SPFX witch head in Photoshop for the final image.

A special thank you to Trevor Hawkins for helping me find the perfect wooded location.

CRONE is included in my upcoming book of Horror photographs from Dark Regions Press, which you can pre-order on their website.

See you next time!

This past weekend Gregg and Cindy Kopsa came to visit me all the way from northern Idaho (along the Canadian border), where they live off the grid in an isolated log cabin Gregg helped build with his parents when he was a boy.  To help celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary we shot portraits of Gregg and Cindy as Frankenstein and his Bride! My friends Nikki Moreno and Candy Cunningham from Vixen Pin-Up Photography did the hair and make-up for me.  It was a fun day!

If you have any portrait requests don’t hesitate to contact me!  I am a freelance photographer always looking for fun gigs.

Thanks again Gregg and Cindy – Happy Anniversary!

Hi kiddies!  This is my new image NOSFERATU.

Nosferatu was played by Bob Barber.

The Victim was played by my wife Jen Hoffine.

SPFX Make-Up by J. Anthony Kosar and Kosart Effects.

I built my set at 3rd St. Asylum, the haunted house run by my cousins.

My friend Demian Vela was my photo assistant.

This image is included in my upcoming book of Horror photographs from Dark Regions Press.  You can Pre-Order your copy on their website.  Thank you to all of the Kickstarter backers who made this project a reality!  See you next time!

A full-scale print of my new NOSFERATU image will be on display as part of the 6th Annual Maleficium Dark Art Exhibit at the Kosart Gallery in Chicago! The show opens this Saturday Nov. 19th

I will also have my triptych of JEKYLL & HYDE on display, as well as NOSFERATU PORTRAIT and CRONE PORTRAIT.

My actors from these projects – Bob Barber and my wife Jen from NOSFERATU, and Chad Hawks from JEKYLL & HYDE – will be at the opening reception with me as well!

This annual art show is curated by my friend and frequent collaborator  J. Anthony Kosar. Anthony and his team created the amazing make-up for my NOSFERATU and JEKYLL & HYDE projects.

Come join us if you can – this will be a great show!

Hi kiddies!  This is a portrait I shot of Bob Barber as NOSFERATU.

SPFX Make-up by J. Anthony Kosar and Kosart Effects.

Costume by Celine Collins at Monkey Wrench Clothing.

Signed 11×14 prints are currently available on Ebay!

Hope you enjoy!

Hi kiddies!  This is a portrait I shot of CRONE.

SPFX by Midnight Studios FX.

Signed 11×14 prints are currently available on Ebay!

Hope you enjoy!

Thank you Alden Miller!

Hi kiddies!  This is my new photography project called PARKING LOT!

This is a personal fear.  Perhaps you have it too?  Being afraid of somebody hiding under your car is the adult equivalent of fearing the monster under your bed.  Dark spaces and exposed ankles.

I wanted this Horror image to be set in bright daylight.  Finding a location for this idea was not easy.  Most businesses would prefer you not stage a murder in their parking lot.  Even a fake one.  In the end, I staged my photo-shoot in a parking lot across the street from 3rd Street Asylum, the haunted house run by my cousins.  The police stopped by only once, and they were very friendly.

The victim was played by my friend and musician Cori Jo Hawkins.

The scary man hiding under the car was played by her husband and filmmaker Trevor Hawkins from Mammoth Media.  Trevor helped me with my short film BLACK LULLABY and is one of the chief collaborators on my upcoming movie project.  Right now he is finishing up his own first movie, a romantic drama called LOTAWANA.

I based Cori’s positioning on Andrew Wyeth’s famous painting CHRISTINA’S WORLD.

The amazing SPFX mask was created by legendary creature designer Jordu Schell.

Right now Jordu is running an IndieGoGo campaign for his first short film.  Check it out!  It is sure to have amazing creature FX.

Thank you to Nikki Moreno at Vixen Pin-Up for doing Cori’s hair!

Thank you to Luke for allowing me to borrow his cool car.

Thank you to Chris Hawkins and Nathan Kincaid for all your help getting the car to the location and back.

And thank you to Dawn and Matt Cheek for producing this sick little photo project – I really appreciate it!

See you next time!

Hi kiddies!

This is my new photograph called INNSMOUTH.  This image is based on the story Shadow Over Innsmouth by legendary Horror author H.P. Lovecraft. This photograph stars actor Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) as the victim and features SPFX from frequent collaborator J. Anthony Kosar and his talented team at Kosart Studios.

In the 1931 story Shadow Over Innsmouth, the human victim is chased through the streets of the seaside town of Innsmouth by a teeming mob of monstrous fish people called the Deep Ones. The imagery of a sole individual being pursued by a city full of monsters is similar to Invasion of The Body Snatchers, I Am Legend, or any modern zombie movie, but exists first in Shadow Over Innsmouth.  As with my previous zombie photograph LAST STAND, INNSMOUTH is populated by a horde of monsters, not just one.

Staging the scene in deep focus with extreme foreground elements was inspired by my love for Citizen Kane.  Giving the monsters daggers was inspired by the assassination scene in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. There are no daggers in the original story, but Lovecraft does make a point of describing the strange gold jewelry worn by the Deep Ones.  I changed the gold jewelry into golden knives, so that my swarm of monsters could fish-gut their cornered victim.

We ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for this ambitious tribute to H.P. Lovecraft to help celebrate the 125th anniversary of his birth. Many talented people came together for this grand collaboration.

My cousins Steve and Jerry Hoffine and Mike Clouse from the haunted house 3rd St. Asylum in Bonner Springs, Kansas built the walls in Jerry’s carpentry shop.  They are all big men and accustomed to wearing masks for extended periods of time, so they also flew to Chicago to play the lead monsters in the photo-shoot.

Our friend Kyle Stanley helped paint the styrofoam brick walls. He drove up to Chicago to play a monster as well. Kyle is the monster on the far right with the bowler hat and bulging eyes.

My assistant Demian Vela transported me, all of my photo equipment, and the brick wall we created in a rented U-Haul trailer from Kansas City to J. Anthony Kosar’s studio in Chicago.  He also plays one of the monsters in the photo.

Kosar and his talented team spent weeks creating the crowd of Deep Ones. Kosar acted as Concept Designer, FX Supervisor, and Lead Artist, with Jamie Leodones and Stevie Calabrese leading the charge as key artists, and Dina Cimarusti, Matt Kapolczynski, and Neil Viola jumping in as additional sculptors.

Celine Collins at MonkeyWrench Clothing hand-made the costume for my star Doug Jones.  I wanted him dressed as a white collar city slicker – an outsider – to contrast the blue collar mob of Innsmouth locals.

Doug Jones is famous to Horror fans for his roles in HellBoy, Pan’s Labyrinth, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Crimson Peak, and many other movies. Here you can see my wife Jen Hoffine adjusting Doug’s sleeve on set.  Everyone was elated to spend time with Doug.

Kosar created an army of monsters as pull-over masks and gloves. With my encouragement, he mixed elements of piranha, angler fish, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon into his designs.  His collection of Deep Ones is amazing.

Here you can see Kosar giving Doug the easiest make-up application of his career.

In addition to Demian, Kyle, and the Cousins, several other volunteers suited up to play monsters, including Justin Gardner, Mark Lancaster, Coye Vega, and Dan Dudych.  Costumes and prop knives were loaned to us by Jerry Vest at Have Guns Will Rent in Kansas City.

I used several strobe lights to ensure my  whole scene would be in focus at F/22, including a special battery-powered strobe inside the lantern. Thank you to photographer Barrett McGivney for the additional equipment, tech support, and behind-the-scenes photos.

Spending time with Doug Jones is too awesome to convey in words.

Careful framing and the liberal use of fog completed the illusion of an outdoor night scene.

The brick building in the distant background of the final shot is actually 3rd St. Asylum, the haunted house run by my Cousins.  I photographed their brick building and composited it into the background of my original scene.

A huge thank you to my Producer on this project Chad Hawks – pictured here in red on the far left – who worked harder than anybody to make this project a reality!

A tremendous heartfelt thank you to all of our Kickstarter supporters, especially our mega-backers Matthew & Dawn Cheek and family, and Alan Harris!  And a big thank you to the leaders of the H.P. Lovecraft community who helped spread the word about our project – including Aaron Vanek and James Knouse at the HPLFF in Los Angeles, Neils Hobbs at NecronomiCon in Rhode Island, Brian & Gwen Callahan at CthulhuCon and the Arkham Bazaar and HPLFF in Portland, Tom Jenkins, Mike Davis at the HPL-Ezine, Chad & Chris at the HPL Literary Podcast, and Sean Branney & Andrew Leman at the HPL Historical Society. We could never have done this without you! Hail Cthulhu!

See you next time!

Hi kiddies!

The monstrous fish people created by J. Anthony Kosar and his team at Kosart Effects are amazing!  I wanted to shoot portraits of these Deep One characters to compliment my main INNSMOUTH photograph. Because the story by H.P. Lovecraft Shadow Over Innsmouth describes generations of Innsmouth inhabitants going back decades, I decided to shoot the portraits as genuine wet plate photographs utilizing photo technology from the 1800’s.

The Veteran

The Madame

The Bride

The Merchant

This type of wet plate photography is like alchemy and utilizes dangerous chemicals that can asphyxiate you or even cause an explosion.   I recruited knowledgeable wet plate photographer Steve Wilson to come in and help.  I worked for Steve Wilson at Hallmark Cards as a young photographer. He was an early important mentor and it was great to work with him again.

We shot the portraits in my home.  Kosar and I dressed wooden mannequins in period costumes and posed them for the camera.

Steve used a powerful HMI light because wet plate has a very slow exposure time and requires a tremendous amount of light.  I love the idea that some young man from Innsmouth participated in the Civil War as a Massachusetts resident.

Here you can see Steve manning the large 8×10 View Camera.  I helped frame and light our portrait subjects.

After exposing a metal plate that he had prepared with a light-sensitive chemical coating, Steve would remove the plate from the camera and develop it in my kitchen while we watched.

I think the singular aesthetics of the wet plate process lend themselves beautifully to gothic subject matter.

See you next time!

A full-scale print of my new INNSMOUTH image will be on display as part of the 5th Annual Maleficium Dark Art Exhibit at the Kosart Gallery in Chicago! The show opens this Saturday Nov. 14th

This fantastic art show is curated by frequent collaborator J. Anthony Kosar. Anthony and his team created the monsters for my INNSMOUTH project. Jen and I will be at the opening, as well as my producer Chad Hawks, star of my JACK THE RIPPER project.  Come join us if you can and meet the artists in person – this will be a great show!

I have a New Website and a New Online Store!

Check out VAMPIRE BABY and other new images!

http://www.joshuahoffine.com

SPFX Baby Prop by Bean Shanine

Hi Everybody!

Want to be in a Joshua Hoffine photograph?  YOU CAN!

I have joined forces with my favorite hair & make-up team at Vixen Pin-Up Photography to create a series of vintage Vampire Portraits!

PERFECT FOR ALL AGES AND GENDERS!

We have set aside 3 full days of shooting:
Sunday Aug. 13
Sunday Sept. 17
Sunday Oct. 15

A full-scale print of my new INNSMOUTH image will be on display as part of the 5th Annual Maleficium Dark Art Exhibit at the Kosart Gallery in Chicago! The show opens this Saturday Nov. 14th

This fantastic art show is curated by frequent collaborator J. Anthony Kosar. Anthony and his team created the monsters for my INNSMOUTH project. Jen and I will be at the opening, as well as my producer Chad Hawks, star of my JACK THE RIPPER project.  Come join us if you can and meet the artists in person – this will be a great show!

KRAMPUS PORTRAIT | 2017

SPFX appliances sculpted by Jeff West at Woochie/Cinema Secrets

SPFX make-up application by Justin Fears

Krampus: Lucas Turner

I just received a copy of my book and it looks fantastic!

This is the first-ever art book from Dark Regions Press. The learning curve was steep, and it was a long, arduous journey to the finish line, but it was all worth it. Thank you again to publisher Chris Morey & DRP for admiring my work enough to make this happen.

I also want to thank the friends and family members that joined me on this adventure. Many great and talented people helped me over the years. Core crew members, like my daughters Shiva and Chloe, my wife Jen, my muse Bob Barber, my right-hand man Demian Vela, and my SPFX artist and creative partner J. Anthony Kosar, returned to work on project after project, year after year. Without you this could never have happened. I love you all!

This is a recent project I photographed for Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine called PICKMAN’S MASTERPIECE.

This sequence of images is based on a 1927 short story by H.P. Lovecraft called Pickman’s Model.  I was attracted to this project because of the character of Pickman – who in Lovecraft’s mythology is a brilliant but marginalized artist notorious for his horrifying artwork.  Due to the graphic and disturbing nature of his work, he is shunned by his fellow artists.

Pickman is my patron saint.

I focused on the moment in the story when Pickman brings his last willing patron into his underground studio to show him his Masterpiece – his greatest and worst work – the one that can never be shown in public.

What he reveals is too much for the human mind to bear.

Instead of creating one heroic image, I wanted to create a sequence of images, like shots from a scene in a movie.

The patron was played by Damian Blake.  He provided his own vintage wardrobe and grew a handlebar moustache for the project.  Here you can see Damian standing in for a lighting test while still wearing his coat.  The basement location was very cold.

The character of Pickman was played by Bob Barber.

My regular assistant Demian Vela, as well as my wife Jen Hoffine (who played the lead in LADY BATHORY) acted as crew.  Here you can see Demian running the fog machine and moving the sheet into position using fishing line.

Pickman’s artwork was provided by fellow Horror Photographer Chad Michael Ward.

Thank you to Famous Monsters for inviting me to shoot this project.  See you next time!

This is the third and final photograph from my new project titled PERSEPHONE.

In Greek mythology, Persephone was a nature goddess who became Queen of the Underworld after being abducted by Hades.  When she is in the Underworld we experience winter.  And when she visits the world she brings with her spring, flowers, and the resurrection of life.  As both a Goddess of Spring, and the Queen of the Underworld – she exemplifies the tension between life and death.

Rebekah Whitt played the part of Persephone, and her SPFX Make-up was done by Shawn Shelton with Bandersnatch Studios.

David Greathouse helped with set construction.

The walls and archway of the set were made from plastic VacuForm panels that we painted to look like stone.

We dressed the set walls with fake foliage and roses, which were meticulously glued to the walls, one flower at a time.

Beki Ingram helped with set construction.

Demian Vela also assisted with set construction.

My wife Jen Hoffine assisted with set construction as well.

Beki Ingram painted hands and arms on 2 models.  I shot the model hands separately and used Photoshop to graft them onto the fake arms that I inserted into the set.  The out-of-focus hands in the foreground were photographed live in front of the camera, with the models kneeling beneath the lens of my camera.

See you next time!