Meet the fine art photographer who got to “shoot” Marvel’s characters in the wild

Bo Bridges is a Southern California-based fine art and commercial photographer known for his artistic sensibilities in shooting scenic landscapes or stunts for movies. While his notoriety began with photographing sports competitions, much of his work now is focused around film, including a recent collaboration he did with Marvel Studios.

In his first collaboration with the studio called Hidden Heroes, Bridges has created a series of fine art photos showcasing his scenic landscape shots, but with some of our favorite Marvel characters tucked into them. And it isn’t just finding them like a “Where’s Waldo?” book, but seeing them in their “natural habitats” as if they truly lived among us.

We caught up with Bridges via email to learn more about the photos and what it was like working with Marvel.

—

DE: How did you start thinking about which characters would be in what setting for the photos?

BB: There are so many characters in the Marvel Universe it was tough to choose which ones, but I went with the ones I knew best, especially the ones I grew up with. Captain America, Spider-Man, and the Hulk where my first creations. I was pulling photos that I thought might work well with the characters in terms of color, themes, and of course their personality, origin and background.

DE: How did you start to craft the photo itself? If you can walk us through the process from shooting to editing, that would be great!

BB: The more I was traveling, the more I was thinking about my angles and where I could hide a character in the image. As I started to lay these images out, I realized there needed to be more of a foreground, middle ground and background in order for the “Hidden Heroes” to find their place. It was more difficult than I expected.

I also wanted to play off the characters background story and/or the action that was taking place inside each photo.

I wanted to retain the artfulness of my images and keep with my style of work and really wanted to have beautiful images with a subtle hint of the Marvel characters in each one, like a hidden easter egg that you can either discover for yourself or challenge someone else to find.

Using Photoshop, I’d move the characters around and find that perfect little nook, shadow, or lurking spot that I thought worked best.

DE: Did you make more than the ones that were publicly released in the series?

BB: We have more images in the works, for sure. My head is so full of ideas for it to continue – choosing which 10 to include in this first series was tough. We’ll be dropping additional series closer to the holidays and also to align with movie premieres coming up. Keep checking my website for new ones in the meantime. We’re also working on a whole new concept too, where I’ll be on set shooting the characters in action. More details on that to come!

—

You can find the first photos in the “Hidden Heroes” collection by Bo Bridges and buy prints of them by clicking HERE.