American artist Blake Little’s show ‘Preservation’ is at LA’s Kopeikin Gallery until April 18, 2015. Moving away from photographing the ‘beautiful people’, Little is focused on skin and the human body in a vast array of subjects covered with buckets of honey. This diverse crowd of human shapes and skin colors evokes both sensuality and drama, as if frozen in time by the sweet goo.

Little says that the honey has a way of democratizing people, transforming them in a universal way as they are ‘preserved’ in amber while minimizing their individuality. Many people compare the images to those of people preserved in Pompeii. His portraits are meant to celebrate the human body. Little added that some people were able to stay in the moment for more than an hour, while others clearly wanted the process to be sped up. (See website)

When I normally take portraits, the person’s connection and their eyes are the most important part of the photograph, how they connect to the camera,” Little said. “So with the honey their eyes are shut so the physicality of being covered in honey and the physical experience replaces the emotion of the eyes. People react differently to the experience and that creates the emotion of the picture.

That’s why the photographs are still portraits: People are reacting individually to the experience.