Mother Earth

“Birds and butterflies,
Rivers and mountains she creates,
But you’ll never know
The next move she’ll make.
You can try,
But it is useless to ask why
Cannot control her,
She goes her own way.

She rules,
Until the end of time
She gives and she takes.
She rules,
Until the end of time
She goes her way.

With every breath
And all the choices that we make
We are only passing through
On her way.
I find my strength
Believing that your soul lives on,
Until the end of time
I’ll carry them with me.

She rules,
Until the end of time
She gives and she takes.
She rules,
Until the end of time
She goes her way.

Once you will know, my dear,
You don’t have to fear:
A new beginning always starts at the end.
Once you will know my dear,
You don’t have to fear:
Until the end of time,
Until the end of time,
Until the end of time,
She goes her way.”

[ Mother Earth - Within Temptation ]

I have recently reissued some older pictures of mine I felt were poorly postproduced back in the day, including a photoshoot I had in a place called Badde Salighes with my mother in October 2009. That session turned out to be a very fruitful one with a lot of different photos of both my mother and me, but its main aim was to shoot a photo inspired by Within Temptation’s Mother Earth, one of our favourite songs ever (I mean, both mine and my mother’s). I wanted my mother to pose for that concept because, of course, when I think of something as motherly as Earth itself she’s the first person that comes to my mind. Also, I wanted to portray her before she cut her hair short and this was the perfect occasion.
Initially, my concept for Mother Earth was that of the photo below, which is a rather direct quotation of the album front cover. But eventually, when everything was done and we were about to leave, I saw the mossy rocks near the place we shot the other photo and was so fascinated by them I asked my mother to sit there and pose. I liked that photo so much I decided that would be Mother Earth, with the other being an alternate version.
I think I’m going to write something about the other photos of this session too, so keep an eye on the blog!