Venus

Venus, the planet of love, beauty, pleasure, indulgence and wealth.

The fourth Personal Planet, it represents the approach to relationships and leisure, as well as attraction and the spending of money. It also represents self-indulgence, shallowness and self-centredness to watch out for.

Ruler of Taurus and Libra, it has its exaltation in Pisces, fall in Virgo, detriment in Aries and Scorpio.

Its glyph represents Aphrodite’s hand mirror, and its meaning is Spirit presiding over Matter.

Here we go: my first photo which is not a self-portrait since last November and, more importantly, since the pandemic begun. We’ve seemingly entered a lull between waves and I thought it’d be a safe enough moment to try and make something different.

So, this is an allegory of the significance of Venus in astrology and totally not the first entry of yet another long-term series by the title of Wandering Stars.

 

When I say I’ve been planning this project for about two years, this photo and the hopefully upcoming Mercury are what I’m referring to: they’re the first concepts I came up with for what could become an entire series of artworks, and some ideas and material I gathered for them date back to two years ago.

The reasons why I didn’t move sooner are many, some valid and some less so: fresh trauma, for one, and my unwillingness to “bother” my model for yet another cooky project of mine; my choice of model, Edoardo (Rosiel from the Infernal Lords), whose long, blond locks make him the perfect male Venus, but who currently lives in Sardinia, which leaves me with a narrow window of time to shoot in-between the summer heat and my departure back to Trieste; some technical challenges, such as working with back light, which I didn’t feel ready to tackle yet; and finally, the Margaery Tyrell hairdo I wanted him to wear, which I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull off decently. Last but not least, I was half-hoping to complete the Infernal Lords before starting another project which, in many ways, would be similar, but then 2020 happened and… well, I have no idea whatsoever of what’s going to happen in general, let alone when I’ll be able to shoot Lucifer.

But Venus I could shoot. And actually, it was all the projects I had to put on hold indefinitely because of covid that made me decide I might as well seize the chance and do it now: I’m in Sardinia for the foreseeable future, so is Edoardo, his hair is the perfect length and colour for it, so why not? The recent news of astronomers finding phosphine (a potential biomarker) in Venus’ atmosphere was the final nudge I needed to call Edoardo and schedule a shoot.

 

Now, while I’m not yet 100% set on general aesthetics for the project as a whole, using back light on both inferior planets – a technical term that designates Mercury and Venus, the two planets whose orbit lies within the Earth’s – for astronomical accuracy’s sake was always my intent: since we can only ever see them in the general direction of the Sun, it’s only fitting that their anthropomorphic allegories would be backlit. Luckily, there is a nice stairway facing west near my home, which offers a largely unobstructed view of the setting Sun and would provide a perfect way around my studio lights being currently in Trieste.

With that out of the way, I studied Loepsie’s tutorial for the Margaery Tyrell hairdo and, while unable to practice beforehand, I was able to follow it to a satisfactory degree once Edoardo was at my place, thus killing my other big doubt about the whole thing.

I knew Edoardo would be down for some interesting styling and have the material to pull it off, and when he suggested that star-studded lace top I immediately and enthusiastically accepted: it was perfect for a male version of Venus!

The shoot itself was quick and painless, the worst nuisance being the wind moving my reflecting panel, which I had to juggle with one hand while shooting with the other. Other than that, Edoardo channelled his inner Minako Aino and barely needed any direction: he’s always the best at this kind of things!

As for symbolism, I played up the beauty and indulgence part, including a hand mirror as a nod to the glyph of the Planet. The halo (of course there had to be one) is a crescent because we can only ever see Venus in waxing or waining phase (when it’s full it’s directly behind the Sun) and it’s at its brightest when it’s only a narrow crescent because that’s when it’s closest to the Earth.

Also, the little bright dot in the reflection in the mirror? That’s Venus! I checked its position and got up in the middle of the night to shoot it with my telephoto lens and add it as an easter egg. I felt it would be funny to do so, rather than just draw it in Photoshop.

So there you have it. No promises as to when this will become an actual series, but I seized the moment and took a photo I’d been aching to take for quite some time without overthinking it and worrying about whatnot. I should do that more often. In fact, I will try to do that more often!