How to Levitate

When it comes to levitation, there are those that say it is an impossible act. Well, I can say with one hundred percent certainty that it is actually possible, and there are many who have done it.

Of course, I am referring to the act of levitating in photography, and not actual levitation; something I have just recently discovered through some very talented photographers on Flickr, one of which is ‘Somewhere Lovely‘.

Here are my two favorite levitation photographs by her:

‘207′ by Somewhere Lovely.

This Peter Pan inspired photograph is quite incredible and just generally fun to look at.  At first, I thought that maybe the lack of a variety colours might be a disadvantage, but the way in which you cannot even tell that it has been edited (as her editing is so impeccable and neat) makes it quite amazing.

I had the vision that perhaps a vintage-type look might be a better look, one which would appeal to the fantastic and surreal genre of the idea; however, looking at it again, the light which reminds me so much of my own bedroom (and maybe it is the same for other viewers), gives the photograph a realistic feel to it, and that separates it from a lot of the other levitation photographs I have seen.

‘198′ by Somewhere Lovely.

This is another photograph by ‘Somewhere Lovely’. One thing I really love about her self-portraits is the motion of her hair, especially in this one. While her hair seems to be moving, the rest of her body is perfectly motionless.

This juxtaposition compared with the fact that you cannot see her face properly, only a light outline of her neck and head, makes the photograph mysterious and perhaps a bit sinister as she seems almost ghostly. Add to that the fact that she appears to be effortlessly floating off the ground, it creates an almost disturbing effect.

While doing research for my approaching year at university, I discovered a well-known photographer that had also tried this levitation in photography. Sam Taylor-Wood has done quite a few series of photographs including levitation. One series is called ‘Bram Stoker’s Chair’, in which she has posed in various impossible positions with a chair.

In the series, she is said to explore aspects of weight and gravity. Each of the photographs portay Sam Taylor-Wood in a gravity-defying pose with a chair in an equally precarious state, as shown above. I really like these images as they are, in all appearances (with the help of a little editing) defying gravity. The poses especially grab my attention, as even though she is frozen in the air, the way she is positioned makes it look like she is gracefully falling, or floating.

Looking around the rest of the internet, there are many people who have attempted this type of photograph, resulting in humorous photographs as well as serious conceptual ones.

This photograph, although not explained or even put under the genre, strikes me as being quite conceptual. The lack of emotion shown on the face, as well the fact that the head is detached from the body and is seemingly being thrown in the air is a bit foreboding in my opinion; it says to me that the person implied is feeling a bit isolated and distanced from the world, or himself. The red eyes especially make the atmosphere of the photograph a bit sinister, as well as the rough textures and the yellow colouring.

This is another photograph I found, the model being (quite interestingly) a monk. I really like the strong colours here, especially as they are so contrasted against the dirty, white wall. It draws attention to the fact that the monk seems to be levitating, and the crop of the photograph does this as well. The lack of understanding of the surrounding context makes it quite abstract, as the viewer cannot tell what is going on, and why exactly the monk is not facing the right way.

After seeing all the amazing photographs, especially those of ‘Somewhere Lovely’ who is one of my favourite photographers, I decided to try levitating myself, and found that it was a lot of fun, and also a lot of work.

It took me a long while to get a decent pair of photographs that I could use, although once I had uploaded them I realised that I had the problem of the photographs I had chosen not exactly lining up, which was a pain. For my first attempt, I think this turned out quite well, and myself being quite blurry and unfocused (which I had originally intended) actually made editing away the stool I was lying on much easier, as I could afford to make little mistakes and errors. It made me understand however, that photographs like those of Somewhere Lovely and Sam Taylor-Wood’s have had a lot of effort put into them, and they are not as easy as I had originally anticipated. It was quite fun in the end, especially the shocked expressions of the people who saw the photograph afterwards, wondering how on earth I had managed to do it.

If you want to try this, it is easy enough once you know how to do it. Of course it takes practice and time, like everything else. There are many tutorials freely available online, for example:

• How to Create a Simple Levitation in Photoshop (Video)
• How do you levitate in photos?
• How To Float In Mid Air (Video)
• Floating in Photoshop
• Floating Without Photoshop (Video)

Thank you for reading!