Parallel || Planets: Billy Kidd: An Anthem for Beauty

A Parallel Planets piece by Unknown

Parallel Planets presents Billy Kidd

in an Anthem for Beauty

Story by Nicole Lane

Mentioned: infinite space, fluidity, and dead flowers

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Billy Kidd is a self-taught fashion and editorial photographer based in Brookyln, New York. I first stumbled upon his work when I was researching for my own photography series about nude images in a studio setup. I was young, in college, and Billy Kidd popped up on my Google image search immediately. Intimate, minimal, and fluid, the images of his wife, Heather Huey, remained seared into my mind for years afterwards. Not only has Billy Kidd brought his wife in front of the camera; he also invites decaying flowers, trees, and various other organic elements which can be shifted and altered through natural lighting techniques and the photographer's eye. His focus on transient subjects creates a theme of fleeting beauty. Billy is able to solidify youth, sexuality, and mortality through his medium of photography — these subjects are forever existing in an infinite space and time.

Many of Billy’s photographs are strong in contrast, both conceptually and visually. He is able to highlight beauty against the backdrop of something out of place or socially displayed as lifeless or constraining. Billy’s photographs employ minimal surroundings which alleviate the viewer from any misapprehensions — aesthetic is the key motivator when examining a Billy Kidd photograph. The shape of his wife's body in contrast with her caged creations are fluid and endless as she distorts her body into abstractions, arches, and curls. In comparison, Billy provides remarkable cohesion between his decaying flowers series and his romantic photographs of his wife. An artist herself, Heather is a designer and creator of head pieces and wearable cages for editorial and fashion purposes. Together with her milky body and the stark cages wrapped around her waist, thighs, and hips, Heather is able to mirror the edges of the petals, the crisp decay which envelopes the once lively blossom.

A photographer since 2007, Billy Kidd’s work is saturated with detail, sharpness, and all-around class. The elegance and expressiveness practically screams at you when viewing his portfolio and various other series. Rethinking classical beauty, Billy’s images are painterly and luminous both in aesthetics and in theory.