Pour Some Sugar On Me

March 9, 2015 7:18 AM

Naked people covered in honey (yeah, NSFW) are strangely beautiful. Who knew?
posted by cross_impact (53 comments total)

I found them kinda nightmarish in a drowning-in-honey kind of way.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 7:25 AM on March 9, 2015 [14 favorites]

Sweet.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:29 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

I am trying to separate my sense of aesthetic appreciation from the my sense of STICKY! STICKY AND ITCHY!
posted by louche mustachio at 7:30 AM on March 9, 2015 [10 favorites]

I saw these yesterday and thought about posting them but couldn't bear to look at them long enough. I find them very disturbing and can't begin t describe how repulsed I was to see that he had done this to a baby and a dog. I mean I can sort of imagine how they might be thought of as "strangely beautiful" but all I see myself is horror. It looks like people who were alive were plasticized like that guy who puts dead people in museum exhibits after preserving them with acrylic or whatever it is.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:30 AM on March 9, 2015 [5 favorites]

Pretty but the Irish in me is deeply troubled by the wasted food.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:32 AM on March 9, 2015 [6 favorites]

Yeah, "Yogi Bear alien cocoon horror drowning party" is the vibe I get from these.
posted by swift at 7:33 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

I too am equally "very neat" and "CAN I GET YOU A WET NAP PERHAPS A PRESSURIZED HOSE".
posted by Kitteh at 7:34 AM on March 9, 2015 [7 favorites]

Scaphism - " The condemned would be stripped naked and fed — forcibly, if necessary — a large quantity of milk and honey. More honey would then be smeared on their skin"
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:34 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

All I can think about is how many bees had to work for how long, just to waste all that honey for creepy pictures.
posted by Windigo at 7:35 AM on March 9, 2015 [18 favorites]

Count me in the horror not beautiful camp. I find the artist's own take on the work weird.
posted by MythMaker at 7:38 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Another vote for horror - The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover is the first thing that came into my mind.
posted by Dr Dracator at 7:40 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow. I though "neat!" and immediately passed it on to my mother who I'm pretty sure will love them.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:46 AM on March 9, 2015

Okay, don't pour the goddam honey on the dog, let the dog lick it off the people.

Otherwise, kewl, I guess.
posted by mule98J at 7:51 AM on March 9, 2015

I was struck by the wide range of reactions they provoked in me. Some are beautiful but others are definitely creepy. Moxie (the dog) struck me as fun. I was mainly just glad I don't have to clean up after one of his photo shoots.
posted by TedW at 7:51 AM on March 9, 2015

I mostly liked the pics, but I do feel that he should have tried it out himself (and not in order to get pictures but just so he would know what he was asking people to do) and he should not have used a dog and a baby, as they could not consent.
It's about ethics in honey covered nude photography, yo.
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:51 AM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]

Count me in the beautiful but creeped out crowd. Perfect for next seasons Hanibal.
posted by pearlybob at 7:51 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yeah, not so into these. For some reason I found the dog and the baby especially creepy.

The honey was collected as it fell off of the subjects and recycled.

I guess the best construal of "recycled" I can come up with is that it was used again for the next subject? Also seems creepy. (Hopefully "recycled" deoesn't meant that it was, like, made into baklava and fed to the people of LA.)
posted by advil at 7:51 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

All I can think of is the Ohio Players album cover I went steady with for about a year when I was a teenager.
posted by umberto at 7:53 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

I am one of those people that can't stand to feel stuff on my skin. This REALLY sets off some heeby-jeebies for me.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:54 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

A waste of honey.
posted by BWA at 7:57 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Naked people covered in honey . . . are strangely beautiful. Who knew?"

I did!
posted by markkraft at 8:26 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

This was an episode of Hannibal, wasn't it?

On preview: Dangit, pearlybob!
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:26 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

They look candied. Like those lollipops with the cricket inside.
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:27 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

One of my very first memories is sitting in the back of the car, hands upraised and splayed, screaming "STICKY!!!" I cannot stand being sticky to this day, so these were pretty horrific for me. But oddly beautiful, as well.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:29 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

A waste of honey.
posted by BWA at 10:57 AM on March 9 [1 favorite +] [!]

Funny you should bring that up...
posted by TedW at 8:32 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

655,722 years worth of bee work hours went into this
posted by Sophont at 8:47 AM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]

Beautifully and disturbing!

There's also a video of the photo shoot, pretty interesting. Watching people get a bucket of thick liquid poured over their head is unsettling, especially as you see once or twice that have to clear their nostrils to breath. Love that he didn't use just model type bodies, but got a little range in.

How did the models clean it off? Especially those with long hair or beards. Sounds like a nightmare.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:51 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Honey dissolves quite nicely in warm water. I don't think it should be a problem.
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:57 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Admit it. You put this post together just so you could use that headline.
posted by echocollate at 9:00 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

terminators freshly hatched from alien eggs.
posted by twist my arm at 9:09 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

NO, NOT THE BEES!!!
posted by I-baLL at 9:13 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Sugar, aah,
Honey honey
You are my candied girl
But that's some daunting goo.
posted by Kabanos at 9:37 AM on March 9, 2015 [5 favorites]

Basted for perfect roasting
posted by Dip Flash at 9:43 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

I particularly like Catherine, the very large woman. The way the honey drips off her reinforces the general drooping of her flesh, giving the whole image an appearance of melting wax. I also like the expression on her face, the tongue sticking out, the expression of ecstasy. An ungenerous reading could interpret this all as fat shaming but I think it's just a really interesting portrait.
posted by Nelson at 10:16 AM on March 9, 2015

Admit it. You put this post together just so you could use that headline.

It was a major motivator, yes.
posted by cross_impact at 10:40 AM on March 9, 2015

The horror. The horror.
posted by 0rison at 10:41 AM on March 9, 2015

It's like that scene out of Goldfinger. Maybe with the future of global warming where bee pollination is key to geopolitical intrigue there could be a future Bond villain called Mr. Beekeeper or Mr. Honeycatcher, or something like that. Someone evil who wants worldwide control of the bees and drowns his opponents in honey.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 10:46 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Dr. Honeybadger, surely!
posted by Kabanos at 11:25 AM on March 9, 2015

I completely sanctimommied when I saw these- BABIES CAN'T HAVE HONEY.
posted by betsybetsy at 11:58 AM on March 9, 2015

Do you want ants?

Because that's how you get ants.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:09 PM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]

Because that's how you get ants.

I'm pretty sure the ants would literally be in over their heads in this situation.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:11 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Dammit. This absolutely creeped me out. First, you could never eat such a large amount of honey. Thus it's being wasted. Second, it makes me think of embalming and House of Wax type horror - and there is no Vincent Price on hand to make up for it. There's a bit in King Solomon's Mines where they go through a cave full of stalactites and centuries worth of dead kings have been placed under the limestone drip to slowly preserve and encase them - that's what this reminded me of.

Oh, and there's another horror story where a famous artist electroplated his enemies to make beautiful sculptures out of them - must have been written when electroplating was a novelty cos those things would have been fugly.

I'll just sit here getting on with my asthma anxiety. Carry on.
posted by glasseyes at 12:30 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

REVENGE OF THE BEES
posted by glasseyes at 12:33 PM on March 9, 2015

Put me in camp Creeped Out, too - looking at these made me feel like I couldn't breathe. Except for the dog. The dog I'm pretty sure was caught at the exact moment before the realization of "OH MY GOD, HUMANS JUST COVERED ME IN FOOD!"
posted by deludingmyself at 12:51 PM on March 9, 2015

I told you I was freaky.
posted by ostranenie at 2:50 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is not the Best of the web. This is terrifying. And gross. And terrifying. And gross. And creepy. And the baby and dog? That's bad. And creepy. And terrifying. And gross.
posted by chasles at 3:14 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

And the baby and dog?

Mmmm, honey roasted!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:42 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I shuddered because all I could think of was the yeast infections and UTIs that might result afterwards for the female models. Not so much scary / disturbing to me as painful looking...
posted by partly squamous and partly rugose at 6:10 PM on March 9, 2015

Someone commented up thread that he should have done this to himself first - the article says he did.
posted by FritoKAL at 7:21 PM on March 9, 2015

This reminds me of the guy who did it with milk.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:24 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

I guess the best construal of "recycled" I can come up with is that it was used again for the next subject? Also seems creepy. (Hopefully "recycled" deoesn't meant that it was, like, made into baklava and fed to the people of LA.)

Presumably it would work fine in compost, though I'da loved to have heard that call to a food scientist.
posted by phearlez at 8:01 PM on March 9, 2015

FritoKAL: Someone commented up thread that he should have done this to himself first - the article says he did.

I think you misread that. The article explicitly says he did not:

Little never tried it out himself, saying he knew he wouldn’t end up using his own photo and it would end up being too much of a process to experiment.

This may have been what tripped you up:

Inspired by the experience, the following week, Little invited a friend to come by his studio to take some portraits with honey covering his head and beard and eventually his body.

But I think that means that a friend came over and he took pictures of the friend, who, apparently, also has a beard.
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:13 AM on March 10, 2015

yeast infections and UTIs
Actually I think honey is sterile...isn't it used to dress wounds sometimes? Or maybe I'm making things up. *waves to mr. google, not caring*
posted by glasseyes at 4:09 PM on March 10, 2015