Chad Michael Ward’s art dives into a murky world of bloodied shadows, pain, and grime. Whether he’s directing music videos for metallers Dragonlord or rock keyboard maestro Derek Sherinian featuring Billy Idol and Slash (an experience he describes as “a blast”), creating background art for Marilyn Manson videos, designing posters, or taking photographs for his art books, there is a dark, grotesque sensibility that pervades his work. And a phalanx of beautiful women willing to take their clothes off for his photographs means his pictures drip with sinful sexuality. Chad’s currently working on a new book, The Pain Box, a series of images taken in an abandoned hospital in LA.

Tell us about your background.

I’m from a small town in northern California, just outside San Francisco. I was raised in a fairly mundane middle-class family, and was no darker than any other child. I grew up with equal amounts of Disney and horror films.
It wasn’t until late in high school that I started exploring ‘dark’ things. I briefly flirted with goth subculture in my late 20s, but these days I get all the darkness I need out of my work.

Did you always want to be an artist?
 
Since day one. But it took a long time before I found photography and digital art and could finally fully realise the visions in my head. For the most part, I’ve taught myself all I know. Even my first pieces back then, awful as they were, had a certain darkness and macabre element. It seems they’ve just gotten darker, and more erotic in some cases, as time goes by.

Which is your favourite piece and why?

To be honest, I tend to hate my work shortly after completion. There are a few pieces that still stand out in my mind – Unholy Trinity [see overleaf], the three-headed priest piece that seems to have become my signature work; all my Pain Box work is still good, in my mind.

If you could shoot any girl in any situation in any location, what would that be?

I’ve always dreamed of taking some young Hollywood starlet to some Eastern Bloc country and shooting horrifying photos in and around all the wonderful architecture they have there.

Tell us about the Pain Box project. What links the pictures together?

The Pain Box is a horror movie as done through stills. There’s an entire storyline involving the characters I have in my head that will be spelt out in the book, should it ever finally reach that stage. I’ve also got tentative plans to write a feature-length screenplay based on the images.

What inspired the theme?

I wanted to take the pornography of horror to a new level. Not entirely unlike Clive Barker did in the 80s with his Hellraiser films, and later his Tortured Souls toy line. Barker had a way to tap into horror that hadn’t been seen by mainstream audiences prior, and I want to take that same approach with The Pain Box – to create a kind of horror that hasn’t really been done yet. I’m not entirely sure I’ve been successful with that, but then, the project isn’t done either.

How did you choose your models for it?

I put out a casting call that had only two prerequisites: the model had to be willing to do whatever it took to get the shot; and could not have any tattoos. I wanted a timelessness to the shots. I also made it a point in most instances to cover everyone’s eyes to give each shot more of a ‘disconnect’ from the viewer; something that made each shot that much more creepy.

Tell us a secret about yourself.

I’m afraid of the dark.

More of Chad’s work at Digitalapocalypse.com