The Art of moment in….Ballet Dance

Photographer captures haunting beauty of ballet in the digital age

How do you capture the dramatic movement of ballet in a static image? It's a question which has challenged artists for centuries.

Danish photographer Ingrid Bugge uses a mixture of digital technology and Renaissance-inspired painting to bring to life the ethereal world of ballet in her book, "The Essence of Ballet." Now turned into an interactive ibook, readers are given a behind-the-scenes look at how she created the haunting images.

As part of the project, Bugge was given special access to The Royal Danish Ballet, photographing the prestigious dance company for almost two years. The 46-year-old artist from Copenhagen then spent another year combining the images into dreamlike collages, using digital technology.

"You could say that I paint with my camera," said Bugge. "I create my pictures out of maybe 50 bits and pieces I feel fit together. I work in several layers. From there, I digitally paint the parts together using Photoshop."

"Movement is one of the things I really like to work with, because when you move you lose control a little bit, there's a certain softness to your expression," said Bugge. "If you see a bird sitting on a rooftop it has a sculptural appearance. But when it flies, it releases another kind of poetry."

"It's definitely artwork, rather than simply photography. There is a long process from the picture I take at the theater, to the final piece you see," said Bugge.

"Ballet dancers have poetry in their blood -- when they dance, they wake up feelings of love, longing, tenderness, strength, and drama," said Bugge. "I wanted to create scenes that had the exact feeling, the exact spirit of that particular performance."

As technology developments, so too do the ways artists capture ballet. What does the future hold? Already, Bugge is working on her next project: underwater dancers.