The thing is, I’m okay with winning but I freaking hate
losing. It’s in my nature. I mean like, losing is for losers, that’s in my
mindset. I know that’s not actually true at all, since at times we just lose.
However, in the end of the day, both winning and losing teaches us lessons.
I chose the “Greek Goddess” theme because I’ve always found
the power and the divine figures are just a huge inspiration. The way they are
portrayed with a background, their flaws, their beauty, and just everything
going on with them. It’s mesmerizing to me. I just found greek gods and
goddesses to be wonderful characters that can be implemented artistically
beautifully. Let’s face it, countless artists have preserved art to celebrate
their beauty, one of the artworks that I love wholeheartedly would be “The
Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli.
So, I made quite of an unorthodox choice here, and that is
to shoot only the female characters from greek mythology. Since I knew from the
start I’m only shooting a woman, I wanted to make sure that I have her
perfectly portray what she can portray best, the females, the goddesses. After
a lot of brainstorming and outfit-and-scene-matching, I came up with 10
characters to shoot(originally 12 but we ran out of time). They are:
Persephone
Aphrodite
Demeter
Pandora
Artemis
Athena
Hestia
Hera
Gaia
Nyx
I met Diana Filip, a russian student who was doing
internship in my city(quite of an odd choice there) as a teacher randomly on
instagram. I quickly DM-ed her on instagram and we planned for a shoot on her
last week in Surabaya. Having her around was an amazing experience. She’s one
of the friendliest people I’ve ever known(judging from the fact we only hung
out for like 5 days).
The idea Goddess came along with the fact that I’ve never shot a blonde before legit-ly and I thought it would be awesome to embrace all of those qualities with her divine-structure. Just what I need, the perfect portion of a Goddess.
The shoot all fell to the perfect places as my mom’s
exquisite haute couture brand, Diana Couture, joins the shoot. Just the thought
of those dresses sends chills down my spine, they are just, fantabulous in all
the right places. One second It feels so couture, the second they feel so
sensual, the third they can be so dramatic. All in the same time. I only
planned 6 Goddesses in the beginning, but since all the dresses look so damn
good on Diana, we planned 12 instead.
Along Diana Couture, I recruited my talented aunt and uncle
I’ve never mentioned before from Baroqco Jewelry. They’re a haute couture brand
specializing in exquisite one-of-a-kind jewelry. From the most elegant pieces
to the most bad-ass looks, they all fit the shoot so well. After all the drapes
and the bling, I recruited Surabaya’s top make up artist/hairstylist, Jimmy Himawan.
He is a pleasure to work with, even though the booking was last minute, he
joined the shoot and I just can’t be happier with all of these people in the
shoot. This is by far one of my strongest teams, ever.
The thing is, I usually do these kind of shoots on the end
of the year, but just the thought of breaking the rules, and shooting something
just sparks so much joy and light and delivering them through my sort of style,
it’s just all worth it. Now, let’s get down to the artistic dissection.
Goddess of fertility, mother to Persephone. A broken hearted
goddess as her daughter was kidnapped and raped to the underworld. Draped in
all green and lime, with a fertile backdrop as she nourishes her grasses.
Hooded in the divine portrayal, she wishes of the return of her one and only
daughter. In wrath to the sirens, she pours down all the water to feed her
greens. This all also portrays a goodbye of the soon-to-be-fall-then-winter
imagery.
