Today we’d like to introduce you to BJ Formento.
Hi BJ, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Formento + Formento is known for its creative photography that explores themes of love, loss, longing, and the burden of memory. Whether they are shooting in America, Europe, Cuba, Mexico, India, or Japan, they blend fervent passion for photography and film with a lasting love for one another. Utilizing staged scenes and desaturated colors, the eerie sensuality of their style reveals a fascination with fiction and reality and mood and texture, where a sense of place figures prominently.
They have produced eight bodies of work and are currently working on their new series “36”. In the winter of 2018, they returned to Japan, focused on channeling the artist Hokusai and asked the question of what Mt. Fuji means to them. “We consider Japan our spirit haven and are constantly yearning to come back and go deeper in our exploration of the people and the landscape. This new work moved us out of the city of Tokyo and into the countryside. Here we wanted to live under the ever-changing appearance of Mt. Fuji and experience its burning energy, creating an ambiguous narrative with our women as they played out an imagined life under the strength of the mountain and beyond the edge of the frame.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There will always be challenges. The trick is to look at it as part of the process.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Under the name Formento + Formento, Richeille Formento styles and art directs, while BJ Formento lights and photographs. The images are a mutual portrait – an exchange in which the artist’s individualities blur, leaving traces on each other. Together the duo has an enthralling ability to absorb the spirit of a time and place, creating cinematic photographs with a vision that references the past but remains contemporary and highly original.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
Love and Light. Why?
Love = Kindness, and starting there opens up all possibilities in the universe.
Light= Sex!
Pricing:
- 20×30″ prints edition of 8 $3k
- 30×45″ prints edition of 12 $6k
- 40×60″ prints edition of 7 $9k
- 60×90″ prints edition of 3 $15K
- 94×195″ print edition of 1 $100K
Contact Info:
- Website: www.formento2.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/formentoandformento
- Other: www.tableauxeditions.com
Image Credits
Ashley Alexander (cheerleader) Amaxtalent, Nashville https://www.instagram.com/ashalexander/ Hayley Robbins https://www.instagram.com/hrdux/ Laureene Paladino Amaxtalent, Nashville https://www.instagram.com/laurenne.juliet/ Photographer BJ Formento Art Director/Stylist Richeille Formento Make Up Artist Clarence Jernigan https://www.instagram.com/theartist_cj/ Venue The Dive Motel https://www.instagram.com/thedivemotel/
