Clinton Lofthouse.  Write that name down.  If he’s not a household name for fans of dark art and horror photography in the next ten years, I’ll eat my hat.  The 35 year old British photographer, located in Bradford, Yorkshire, has a wicked eye and creates images that are simultaneously beautiful and terrifying.

When our site owner asked if I’d be interested in sitting down to chat with Clinton, I jumped at the chance.  The artist brings cinematic vision to still images that are alive in every textured detail, and he was excited to sit down and discuss a few images he handpicked for us here at iHorror.  He even sent us one that no one else has seen before!

Without further ado, I give you Clinton Lofthouse in his own words and images!

Icons of Horror

“I created a short set of photos that I called the Icons of Horror based on the films that I watched when I was a kid and really getting into horror.  I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street when I was just five or six years old,” Lofthouse explained.  “And I followed that in short succession with The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II.  I had to be babysat when my mom was working, and my babysitter had an enormous horror collection.  So, she just let us watch whatever wanted to and obviously, I went straight for the horror.”

“So Evil Dead and Nightmare on Elm Street were both big parts of my childhood, and so I wanted to sort of pay homage to those movies that really made me a horror fan.  With the Ash image, I really wanted to kind of rough of it up and give it a sort of grungy look.  I wanted it to be like the film.  I did share this one up on Twitter and Bruce Campbell did pick it up and share it so that was really exciting!”

“This was one of the first large format composites that I did where it was a full scene. That’s my ex-girlfriend in the bed and I set that shot up with her and worked on the lighting and got it the way that I wanted it.  The Freddy Kreuger is actually a toy so I was able to set up the lighting to mimic her in bed and blend him into the scene.  Freddy and Ash in these images were both toys.”

Evil Clowns

“When I first started horror photography, I would try to buy props and work images around those props.  One of the first things I bought was like a clown suit and creepy clown mask to go along with it.  So, every Halloween, I would do a Halloween image with the suit.”

“With this one, I took it at my old house.  It was coming up to Halloween and I had forgotten to do an image,” he explained.  “So I quickly threw together an idea.  I had my friend bring his son over to the house and took the image of him propped up with the book.  Because it was such short notice, I actually dressed up as the clown this time, so that’s me in there.  And I was thinking about where the clown could come from that would make it quite creepy.  And I thought he could be coming out of the wardrobe which might not make a lot of sense, but it would definitely be creepy.  And then I played with the perspective so it was a giant clown coming from the wardrobe.”

“I like images that sort of make you think you’re seeing blood and gore when you’re not seeing much at all.  In this image, you don’t really see much at all, but you know it’s in a nursery.  There’s blood splatter against the wall on the left side.  Obviously, that’s probably where the child’s cot is so…you get to tell the story there.  To me that makes it scarier and that makes it more real.”

Childhood Monsters and Ghosts

“The first time I shared this image in a couple of horror groups, I had people asking me if my son was okay afterward and a few telling me that I shouldn’t do that to a child. But the thing is I shot it all separately.  I shot my son first and then I shot the model and put the images together.  So I told my son-he was about four at the time-I said, ‘There’s going to be a monster behind you so just act scared.’ So he was just sort of half doing it when we first started and finally I told him if he’d do a good job I’d buy him a packet of sweets.  He got right into it then, pulling all these faces and what not.  He’s quite the little actor.”

“My girlfriend had gone out for the day and my son had been asleep.  I was just really starting photography so I was always thinking of ideas and kind of writing stuff down that came to mind.  I heard this really strange noise upstairs and I wondered what that was because were there by ourselves.  So I went upstairs and there was no one there.  And it just kind of came to me.  Imagine if there was some old woman ghost sitting in the corner watching the crib when I walked in.  So I was immediately like I need to do that.  So when he woke up I took the picture and then when my girlfriend got home I had her dress in the outfit and sit int he chair so I could get the second image to blend in with it.  It was still missing something, though, so I had that idea that it should be taken from the point of view of like a child’s cot camera.  So I added those effects.  When I first posted it, it was crazy because all of these people started debating about whether it was real or not!”

Dark Beauty

“This was from a client commissioned shoot.  She wanted me to photograph her and sort of place her in a horror setting.  We were getting down to the end of the shoot and I got really close to her with the flash.  It really created a great, sort of washed out image.  I used the crew’s hands around her face and when I removed so much color from her face, it really made those sort of rotting hands stick out.”

“I actually took this image in Holland.  I was at a horror workshop and this is one of the images I created while we were there.  I was working with some great people and everyone was teaching and learning together.  It was a really great experience creating this image.”

Author’s Note:  This is an iHorror exclusive.  The first time this image has been shown.  Lofthouse only finished it this morning!

“This image is one of the first images for my new websites themed shoots, Zombpocalypse,” Lofthouse noted.  “I will have a series of these to promote the zombie themed shoots that you can buy from DeadEvil Beauty.”

Monsters and More!

“I created this image for an art pack for a group that I’m a part of called Dark Realm Collective.  That image is about 7-10 images combined into one.The man, the background, the moon, the trees, they’re all separate images that really came together for this one.”

“This is my ex-girlfriend,” the photographer laughed.  “I focused on the eyes because I wanted to sort of show this zombie infection and I put that through the eyes.  That red and the blue with those lines, it really makes it stand out.  I really liked the effect when it was done.”

Clearly, this is a process.  From the combining of images to the adjustments of lighting to making an action figure look like a real man looming over his next victim, it’s a process that Clinton excels at.  You can learn more about the photographer’s work on his Facebook page, his brand new website, and you can also follow him on Instagram @deadevil_beauty.