THE HORROR CONCEPT
In 2016, I had been shooting with my camera and using Photoshop to create horror art for around five years. It wasn’t a linear path—I went from a hopeful landscape photographer (too dependent on the British weather and getting out of bed at the most disgusting time of the morning), to excitable urbex explorer photographer, made a quick stop as an alternative model photographer, and finally found my niche when I started using all those elements in unison to create horror art.
Online, I had begun to grow a little following on Facebook—this was in the days before the dreaded algorithm and its unusual ways. With a few publications and blog features under my belt, I was chugging away, still experimenting and creating dark art with what would eventually become (after lots of terrible images) my cinematic style.
Anyway, little did I know that my next image in 2016 was going to be one of my most pivotal—the one that would go viral, showcasing my work to a larger audience, and proving that I am the kind of dad to put my son in the bath with a demon. Hey, from childhood trauma comes strength and resilience... that’s what my therapist told me, anyway.
The idea was simple: I was trying to think of a concept based on a child’s fear. I didn’t want to go with the usual clichés—clowns or things under the bed. I wanted something more mundane, something relatable, and something I could put my own twist on. Then, early one night, as I was trying to wangle my five-year-old son into the bath (something I still have to force him to do now at 13 to keep away the stench of schoolboy armpits and sweaty school shirts), I realized—there is nothing scarier to a young boy than bath time! No over-excited little bundle of torment wants to get in the bath. The number of times I had to pry my son’s fingers off the doorway to the bathroom was endless.
The fear of bath time was the perfect concept. After a quick Google search, I found out that it’s a recognized thing (obviously, just ask all the traumatized parents of Stinky McStinkerson), and its official name is Ablutophobia. I had the concept—now I just needed an angle. Tentacles coming out of the plughole were predictable. Anything coming out of the plughole was binned. Then I remembered The Shining and the scene that traumatized many a young person—Jack Nicholson making out with a creepy, old, witch-looking woman who climbed out of the bath. Creepy old women were always a hit. Plus, the contrast of a creepy old demon lady, naked in the bathtub with a child, felt even more shocking and taboo.
Don’t worry, my son and the model were never even in the same place at the same time. Come on, I’m not that messed up of a dad!
I did a few sketches, and it felt good, but something was missing. In horror photography, sometimes it’s just one extra surreal touch that can make or break an image. This image needed that little cherry on top—and it came to me while I was editing. Why not have the whole room overflowing and rising with water? A small but surreal touch, but it completed the image.
THE HORROR SHOOT
For most artists, the easiest part is the doing—it’s the concept and originality that are the hardest parts. So with an A+ concept in the bag, I got my makeup artist and model, and I pulled in my son to do acting duties!
I set up early in the morning with my tripod. I planned to lock the camera in place, shoot my son, then leave the camera locked in place and shoot the model in the evening. Having a child with ADHD, I knew I had a limited window of around ten minutes before he got bored and wanted to do something else.
Bless him, he was giving it a good go, but he wasn’t quite getting the expression I wanted. Nine minutes and 30 seconds in, I could tell he was about to lose all hope and run off downstairs. So I did what any self-respecting dad would do—I bribed him with a bag of sweets.
I assured him that if he gave this last shot all his effort and acting skills, we would walk to the shop around the corner and he could stuff his face with E numbers. Fortunately, the stars aligned, and the gods of child manipulation favored me—the last shot, the final shot, was the money shot!
Next up was our trusty model (Ambellina) and the makeup artist. Samantha Newman was a makeup student at Bradford College, and she did a fantastic job of bringing my demon lady to life. The plan was to paint the whole body, but due to time constraints, we decided to paint up to the stomach area, and I would fill the rest in with Photoshop.
We then popped Ambellina in the bath, poured water over her, and got the second shot. The good thing about shooting locked on a tripod is that you can easily blend images together in Photoshop. So the actual placing of Ambellina and Carter into the same shot was very easy—but evidently too successful, as a huge number of people online thought I shot them together... and were quite sickened by it.
A job well done in my books. Haha.
THE DARK ART OF PHOTOSHOP
To make a good horror image, your main ingredients should be a solid concept, willing models, and a fun shoot. The last bit—the sizzle, the dark magic—is Photoshop. This is where you can hone your image like an artist of old, crafting your photos into something more than just a collection of images. For me it's like painting, I make sure the composition works in various ways using traditional rules of composition - leading lines, gamut, radiating lines, etc. Then it's clean up, dodge and burn, colour grade, and styling. I won't bore you with the technicalities of Photoshop, I have plenty of online articles and YouTube videos showing my process.
THE RESPONSE
It’s funny how sometimes you create something personal and it's literally crickets online, and sometimes you create something, throw it into the void, and suddenly—boom! It takes on a life of its own. This was one of those images. I had a feeling the concept was a fun horror concept, but....
Since I first released it, this piece has gone viral multiple times, racking up hundreds of thousands of likes across social media. It’s been shared and reshared by horror pages, photoshop pages, and, one of my personal highlights, Slash from Guns N’ Roses himself posted it on his Instagram. If you told teenage me that one day a rock legend would be casually sharing my horror photography, I’d have probably dropped dead on the spot.
Beyond social media, it’s been featured in magazines, featured on worldwide blogs, and even landed on the cover of a horror anthology book. And to top it off, back in 2017, it won me the Fear Awards in the U.S. Pretty goddam cool huh! Still, to this day, if I post it online it always gets a huge response
So why this image? What made it so successful?
I think it comes down to a few things. First, it taps into a universal fear. Even if you weren’t personally terrified of bath time as a kid, you know that struggle—, the screaming, the sheer injustice of being forced into warm, soapy water. The image takes that relatable childhood experience and twists it into something unsettling and surreal, which makes the horror more relatable and, weirdly, more real.
Then there’s the composition itself. It’s dynamic. It has a sense of movement and panic. It almost feels like a freeze-frame from a horror movie you half-remember watching as a kid. It has a surreal angle that makes it stick with people.
And finally, there’s my son and his award-winning, sugary treat blackmailed, face of pure fear and panic. If there's one common theme in the comments, it's my son's expression and how it elevates the image. This little cherub, being attacked at his most vulnerable time of day, BATHTIME! Resonates with people.
And honestly, that’s the biggest win of all. Creating something that sticks in people’s minds, something that unsettles them in just the right way—that’s what horror art is all about.
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