Ballet Heels began as a personal exploration of an unconventional material — latex — and has grown into a body of fine art photography at the intersection of fashion, contemporary art, and lifestyle.
Latex is an unforgiving material to photograph. It reads as a mirror before it reads as a garment: every light in the room comes back at you, and the shape underneath disappears behind the reflection of the shape. Learning it meant unlearning most of what works on fabric.
What kept the work going was not the material itself but what it does to a person wearing it. It changes posture. It changes breath. It makes the wearer aware of the edge of their own body in a way that ordinary clothing never does — and a camera sees that awareness long before it sees the latex.
Latex is an unforgiving material to photograph. It reads as a mirror before it reads as a garment: every light in the room comes back at you, and the shape underneath disappears behind the reflection of the shape. Learning it meant unlearning most of what works on fabric.
What kept the work going was not the material itself but what it does to a person wearing it. It changes posture. It changes breath. It makes the wearer aware of the edge of their own body in a way that ordinary clothing never does — and a camera sees that awareness long before it sees the latex.
The work is made with models, artists, and performers who share a passion for bold, authentic self-expression. It ranges from editorial high fashion to intimate lifestyle and conceptual art.
Nothing here is candid. Every frame is built — lit, fitted, rehearsed, and shot again. The stillness in these pictures is worked for, not caught. That is the part people tend to get backwards about this kind of photography: the control is not the opposite of the vulnerability, it is what makes the vulnerability safe enough to show.
A shoot only works when the person in front of the camera decides it does. Everything else — the lighting, the polish, the retouching — is in service of a decision that is not mine to make. The best pictures in this archive are the ones where someone chose to be seen.
Nothing here is candid. Every frame is built — lit, fitted, rehearsed, and shot again. The stillness in these pictures is worked for, not caught. That is the part people tend to get backwards about this kind of photography: the control is not the opposite of the vulnerability, it is what makes the vulnerability safe enough to show.
A shoot only works when the person in front of the camera decides it does. Everything else — the lighting, the polish, the retouching — is in service of a decision that is not mine to make. The best pictures in this archive are the ones where someone chose to be seen.
Meet our team
Our leaders
The two people behind every album. One in front of the camera, one behind it. A creative collaboration between multiple professions.
Raymond K. Larum
Founder, Photographer, Creative Director, Film Maker
Marie Deux
Ballet Dancer, Ballet Heels Model, Fashion Designer