Surreal Lava Portraits Captured On Lava Flows In Hawaii

Photographer Benjamin Von Wong doesn't do things by half. Previously, he's played fire and swam in toxic water for two of his epic photo shoots and now, he's taken on lava fields. 

The shoot took place in Hawaii where Benjamin had the help of lava expert and fellow photographer CJ Kale. You can see how the team put the shoot together in the behind-the-scenes video above and as you can imagine, it wasn't easy. Not only is lava rather hot and surrounded by toxic clouds, it's not the easiest thing to track but luckily, Pele the Fire Goddess was on their side and a large amount of surface flows meant that the project could be brought to life. 

CJ advised they should travel light but with a Siros L lighting kit, camera gear, video gear, costumes, props, stands, smoke machine, water sprayer and lots of other extras, light wasn't really the word you could use to describe how they'd be travelling. 

The trek to the shoot location began at midnight and it took the team three hours and not far off four miles to reach the glowing lava. Once there, the set-up was just a tricky as the trek to get there, as Benjamin explains: 

"Designing the lighting for the shoot was like choreographing a dance. Every time I changed my composition, Tama, one of my intrepid assistants, would have to navigate the fields of lava while juggling a 5kg Siros L and light stand. He would then hide himself directly behind Tau, our model. Similarly, any time Tau would move, Tama would also have to compensate to get into the right position.

That one single backlight was critical to create the intricate texture of the hardened lava. Without it, the scene would go from an epic apocalyptic moon-like surface to boring red glows within a sea of darkness."

After the lighting was perfected next came smoke and water special effects. A 2L water sprayer actually became the star of the show as not only did it keep Tau cool as he stepped ever closer to the lava but the spray in the air also made it look like steam was rising out of cracks in the ground, further exaggerating just how hot the surface was.  

With the help of the photos from the shoot, Benjamin hopes he can bring attention to indigenous people who have been dealing with the fallout of climate change for years and he's also donating 100% of the print profits from this project to victims of Hurricane Matthew through the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation. If you'd like to buy a photo, head over to Benjamin's 'Lava For Change' website where you can also learn more about the lava portrait shoot.