BENTON, Arkansas — What's your favorite scary movie?
Scream? It? Carrie? Chucky?
This Arkansas photographer is making all of your biggest nightmares come to life in his latest project: 31 Days of Horror.
Benjamin Martin, owner of Benjamin Martin Photography is a 27-year-old photographer from Benton, Ark. He is actually a full time wedding photographer, so most people know him for shooting elegant weddings.
"I always had a passion for photography growing up," Martin said. "My dad was a wedding videographer and I’d often get to go and assist behind the scenes and hold things. I loved the energy and ceremonial parts of wedding days. I feel super lucky to be able to share so many days alongside couples on one of the best days of their lives."
31 Days of Horror
Halloween has always been Martin's favorite time of year, so he wanted to merge two of his favorite things and use this fun project to explore the darker side of photography. He said is was a way to push himself out of his usual wedding comfort zone.
For all 31 days of October, Martin will release a new image from the series on his Facebook and Instagram pages.
Martin has been choosing a mixture of some of his favorite scary movies, ones that have iconic scenes that everyone will recognize. He said his favorite scary movie is Scream. "Only because it has the most iconic opening scene of all time. No one can forget those first 5 minutes," Martin said.
He said he is also listening to the fans of this project to suggest their favorite movies or scenes that he might not have thought of.
"Some of these photographs are self portraits," Martin said, "others, my friends have stepped in to help. A lot of people have reached out to me on Instagram volunteering to model as well, so that’s been amazing."
"This is something I’ve wanted to do for a few years now," Martin said, "and so glad I finally was able to push myself to do it."
As of October 18, Martin said so far his favorite photograph is probably the exorcist levitation.
"My friend Rachel modeled for this one and everyone’s been dying to know how we pulled it off, but my lips are sealed," Martin said.
If you want to follow Martin during the month of October to see what else he has in store for this Halloween, you can follow his Facebook or Instagram pages for more spooky photographs. On the final day, Martin will be releasing a behind the scenes gallery from the shoots that will show how some shots were achieved.