Wings

“When you find me free falling out of the sky
And I’m spiralling out of control,
When I drop like a cannonball from cloud nine,
Just promise you won’t let me go.

Say you’ll catch me when I fall,
Wrap your wings around my body
When I’m lost in the storm
And I’m calling.

Wrap your wings around my body,
Wrap your wings around my body.
Wrap your wings, wrap your wings,
Wrap your wings around my body.

When we stood on the skyline there was no turning back
And you said not to stare at the ground.
There’s a hole in my parachute as big as my heart
And the gravity’s pulling me down.

Will you catch me when I fall,
Wrap your wings around my body
When I’m lost in the storm
And I’m calling?

Wrap your wings around my body,
Wrap your wings around my body.
Wrap your wings, wrap your wings,
Wrap your wings around my body.

We’re flying above the valley below,
We’re flying above the valley below.
We’re flying above the valley below,
We’re flying above the valley below.

Wrap your wings around my body,
Wrap your wings around my body.
Wrap your wings, wrap your wings,
Wrap your wings around my body.”

[ Wings – Hurts ]

My oldest notes about a concept for Wings read as follow: “She embraces her / him from behind; the arms are wrapped in flowy fabric, floating in the wind like wings”.

Wow. Boooo-ring.
Basically, I was just going to rip off Wonderful Life, but at a closer range and with floaty sleeves. Did I say, boring?

That’s one of the reasons I never quite did anything with Wings, besides the fixation that there had to be a real-life couple for sentiment and blah blah blah. That is, until mid-2019, when  I was browsing DeviantArt for witchcraft-themed photos for a feature journal and I came across Dark Water Witch by Anndr and Kabarsa. Visually striking, extremely evocative and… wait, that’s a really great idea!

What if I still had a couple, alright, but with an “angel girl” archetype of courtly poetry inspiration who’s actually down below, waiting to catch and save the boy falling from up above? Play with perspective, shoot them both separately, then flip the photo of him and mash the two images together. That’s much more visually striking than just “upright spooning with floaty fabric”.

 

At this point, my mindset was still set on “romance”, so I was still expecting to cast a real-life couple for the photo. One potential occasion I considered to take Wings was the photoshoot for Stay with Loli and Nicola, but Stay was draining enough on its own given its history, plus there was not a breath of wind in for the sleeves that day, so I gave that up. Then I was all out of couples for the next few months until, y’know, 2020 happened, which made me bury and forget this photo for a while.

Including Wings into the session with Luisa was an almost last-minute decision which, given the themes of other photos such as La Cura, I’m actually surprised I didn’t take sooner. Perhaps because I was so fixated on the romantic undertones of the song that I totally overlooked it could very well also apply to friendship. Me and a friend and my camera were a perfect fit for this photo.

Now, I knew all along that going from concept to finished piece was going to be challenging. It required two separate portraits with compatible light, enough room to make a really wide image, and an inordinate amount of editing.

I shot Luisa’s portrait first, squeezing it in-between Wave Your Flags and Glorious in a moment when the clouds got thicker and, thus, the light was at its most neutral, and then, locking the focus to have the correct depth of field, I took several shots of the background so I wouldn’t have space problems composing a panoramic picture if I had to make the image wider to fit my full figure, or even tweaking her pose according to my position if necessary.

As we were on a tight schedule with our main project, I left my own portrait for another time, which was actually a few days after Luisa even left, when I got similar light conditions to that evening. In theory, if I were falling from the sky, I would be shot slightly from below, so I set the camera on a higher position than I’d be so the downwards perspective would turn upwards in the rotated image. I also chose a light concrete setting, which would be easier to edit out of the final image against a cloudy sky. With my mother’s assistance, I took several shots while jumping to give momentum to my legs and not have my feet flat on the soil, until I was satisfied with one of the takes.

Finally, I shot the sky so I could fill in the originally horizontal picture of Luisa and turn it vertical to accomodate me.

I did the postproduction live on Discord with my best friend, who’s a paintress and could give me some advice about the relative proportions and positions of the two figures, to make sure everything clicked together. As expected, I ended up widening the background in Luisa’s photo, then added the sky to make the image vertical, and finally positioned my photo according to Luisa’s. There was also some tweaking of our poses, for which the separate backgrounds were helpful, but the bulk of the work was just to edit our the concrete around me, half of which I accomplished simply by subtracting all the black selectively from the white channels. Then a little colour filtering to make the image look prettier and ta-dah!

Now, this is one of those cases in which the final work lies halfway between actual photograph and photomanipulation. In this cases, when you’re taking a photo of something that’s not entirely there, planning ahead is vital. You need a clear final image in mind in order to take all the photos as matching as possible, and it’s also important to make a mental map of everything you might need for the final image, such as extra background shots, in order to make them as compatible as possible and make the editing process easier and the final result more photorealistic.

It is a challenge, but one that’ll leave you fulfilled and satisfied in the end.

Fractured

“I’m a typical
Hypocritical,
Egotistical-minded
Individual.
I’m a silent fuse,
I’m a tightening screw
And I might be everything
That is wrong for you.

Because I’m fractured:
Get your hands off me!
Because I’m fractured:
Get your hands off me!
Because I’m fractured:
Get your hands off me!
Get your hands off me!

I’m a cynical,
Analytical,
Apocalyptical-minded
Individual.
I’m a twisted wheel,
An Achilles’ heel
And I can’t communicate
Anything I feel.

Why?

Because I’m fractured:
Get your hands off me!
Because I’m fractured:
Get your hands off me!
Because I’m fractured:
Get your hands off me!
Get your hands off me!

Fractured,
Because I’m fra—”

[ Fractured – Hurts ]

Actually, this is the first photo from the Faith batch of the Inspiration Hurts project that I conceptualised. It’s a very distinctive song, with its experimental feel, immediate visual motives, super-relatable lyrics and… well, full-blown weirdness, in a good sense. It’s almost rapped, except half of it is whispered and the other is downright spit with contempt. God, I missed Hurts at their best.

So yeah, this is a photo that was practically taking itself from the get go: a dirty, cracked glass, and each piece shows a different reflection or scene, all in a different state of neurotic meltdown. Something unpretty and experimental to go along with the music of the song, while providing an immediate link with the imagery in the lyrics.

Shooting the photos was pretty quick and easy: I did it in the same session as Voices, being careful to have the same light and, especially, focal distance so that I would be the same size on each piece of the “puzzle”. Beside being the quickest and easiest solution, I wanted to model myself because I can absolutely relate with this song.

The biggest load of work was definitely postproduction: I started by working on the cracks, which I drew myself (I’m trying to avoid unnecessary outings due to the pandemics, so there was no way I would hunt the city for a broken window or something), then I preemptively shaped all the masks on solid colour layers so it would be easier to insert the individual photos, added each self-portrait, beauty-retouched each of them on the spot, made sure the composition made sense, turned it monochromatic and added the dirty glass texture for a more photorealistic effect. It took me about one whole evening, but it’s one of those graphic projects that relax me while keeping me challenged at the same time, so I actually had a lot of fun.

I’ve got another couple of photos that I can do quickly and easily now before Faith hits the “I need a couple modelling for me” standstill that has swamped the previous three albums. I think I’ll try to take them in the coming weeks while still high on inspiration from the recent album release, then we’ll see where these crazy times take us.

Stay safe, everybody.

Matter Of Time

“‘It’s a matter of time’, you said,
‘It’s a matter of time’.
‘Figure out what is yours’, I said,
‘Figure out what is mine’.
And even if I pretended trust,
It was not hard to pretend.
And even if I gave up myself,
You’re not on what I depend.

As you wanted me to be right,
I preferred to be wrong.
And as your self-pity got control,
You supposed to get strong.
You might misunderstand me, dear,
But I had all that before.
Get control of yourself, my friend,
But you’re about to ignore.

Don’t have to comprehend where I belong,
Where I pretend to know if you’re wrong.
You tried to reach me on behalf of your errors,
A life getting serious.
You’re not as delirious to look in the mirrors
Of open decisions, so run.
Behalf of your errors, a life getting serious,
So look for where you have begun.”

[ Matter Of Time – Leandra ]

Oh boy, this photo.

So, remember how in 2015 I was going through an utterly disastrous moment, I had to really, truly acknowledge that I was clinically depressed because, left untreated, it was pulling me down, I had dropped out of university for good, I had no idea whatsoever where my life was headed and, on top of it all, that included photography because I had had a certain experience that had totally shattered my self-confidence? Yeah, I don’t have fond memories of that time.

At some point, after I reached my absolute low due to a wrong anti-depressant prescription that turned me into a zombie for about a month and a half (don’t worry, I’ve changed my therapist immediately afterwards), things started to get to a point where at least I was functional enough to tell myself, “Boy, try to figure your shit out; to hell with past mistakes and future anxieties, just focus on the here an now, to find a way to feel better, get stronger and then deal with the rest”.

While most of my life was still up in the air, at least I got my creativity back, my most important way to sort out my feelings, deal with them and feel like I could turn something productive out of my misery. I reshot the photos that had opened that can of worms in the first place, and went on to take a few others for my Inspiration Hurts and Morphine projects because I was approaching a once-in-a-lifetime deadline: I was going to have my hair cut short.

I was tired of wearing it long and it was one of the weights I felt I needed to shed if I wanted to go on. I was struggling with my image, with the amount of care it required (and when you’re that depressed, even basic self-care is difficult) and I just kept it tied all the time because it was an annoyance. I considered the idea for months, then, when I was feeling like I was at a turning point, I decided to do it. It was, as they say, a matter of time.

You see what I did there.

I had the idea the morning I was set to have the haircut and decided to go for it: I envisioned the song as a conversation between zombie-me and enough-is-enough-me, and thought of rendering it with old, long-haired me sitting on the floor on his self-pity party in the shadow, and new, short-haired me standing up confident and facing the light: the change, symbolised by the haircut, was the titular matter of time. So I set the tripod, took the long-haired photos and left it all there for the next morning, with the same light, angle, perspective and everything, for the short-haired one. I also carefully studied the styling so I’d wear two similar outfits but with slight differences, to signal a progression in the narrative. Basically, everything worked in theory.

The problem is, I was in a hurry and the first batch of portraits was so-and-so: the best one fit the idea perfectly, but I miscalculated the frame and had part of my arm cut off. When I tried to assemble the photo, this made the whole composition horribly unbalanced and, hey, the problem was the portrait I couldn’t get another shot at, so what to do? I just left the PSD sitting unfinished on my external hard-drive, and tried (and failed) to come up with an entirely different concept for the song.

Then yesterday, while I was doing some cleaning up, I opened it again and damn, I still liked the idea after all this time. So I went through the other takes and ta-dah, I found one that wasn’t as good, but whose elbow I could transplant to move the whole composition so it wouldn’t look awkward. At this point, I only had to wait for morning today, re-shoot the background (which, at this point, had become a bloody mess), blend the whole damn thing together and hell yes, I did it, I saved the photo!

It has become a matter of a long time at this point, but I’m glad I pulled it off after all, it’s a good reminder that even when you lose all hope, you can still dig you way out of a bad moment and do something out of it.

Frozen

“Cold and risen from the grave,
Hidden years will tell no tales.
Now you seek what only heart can see,
Frozen in so many ways.

Drifting through the light inside,
A lucent image in the dark.
Fickle and dismayed,
Someone cast a shadow
Blurring all the pictures on the pages.

Hide the pieces, I become the sun,
Shining through what became of you.
Early morning, no time to lose,
Chills my heart and I come undone.

Quiet timeless silhouette,
Forgotten fragments of my dreams.
Pleasure and disgust,
Flashbacks out of phase,
Shining golden figure in the background.

Hide the pieces, I become the sun,
Shining through what became of you.
Early morning, no time to lose,
Chills my heart and I come undone.”

[ Frozen – Theatre of Tragedy ]

So, back in the day (like, 2013), I envisioned a sort of trilogy made of this image, Hollow and Illusions, each inspired by their eponymous song from Theatre of Tragedy’s final album, Forever Is The World. Even after years I haven’t figured out why I feel this songs are connected, but bear with me.

While I did Hollow pretty much straightaway, and Illusions had to wait one more year because it gave me a harder time figuring it out, Frozen took me six good years to take. The visual concept was perhaps the easiest to do, as the lyrics provide a plethora of distinct imagery to work with, but I was entirely dependent on weather to take the actual photo. I needed snow because it’s kind of in the title, I needed a monumental cemetery because it’s in the lyrics, the rest follows the lead of the other two photos with a mixing of portraiture and non-portraiture assembled on a hypothetical fashion magazine page.

As you can imagine, snow was the hardest part to work out, to the point it had become something of a running joke: either the winter was particularly warm and I wouldn’t get any at all, or it did snow in Trieste, but only while I was away in Sardinia for whatever reason. Damn, last year we got rain, strong wind, freezing cold, but no snow, until it snowed in freaking March, just the day after I flew to Sardinia to vote on the elections. How is that even possible?

Of course, trying to go and shoot somewhere else with more reliable snowfalls would have been tricky, because I would need to leave on a very short notice, go somewhere reasonably close to still have light to shoot (going farther would require staying the night at some friends’ with no guarantee to still find snow the next day) and, once there, get from the train station to wherever the closest cemetery was on an unknown transport system without even the guarantee that it’d work at all in adverse weather conditions. Also, I’d only have a vague idea of what I’d find at the cemetery, if it would lend itself to photographs, and so on. Basically, all the logistics behind this photo were a nightmare on so many levels, and part of the reason why I didn’t just give up is my friend Katia, who kept me believing that Frozen would happen, eventually.

Finally, this year I got lucky and it snowed the very night of my arrival from Sardinia to Trieste. I had half-given up by the time I went to bed because we were having the faintest snowfall and it looked like it wouldn’t stick, but the next morning my friend Giulia kept ringing me on the phone until I woke up and looked out of the window and I saw it: the snow had stuck! Truth be told, if she hadn’t kept ringing, I would have slept until all the snow had melted and I would have regretted missing this one occasion forever. So I got up, shaved, packed up, hopped on the first bus and there I was, heading for the snow-covered monumental cemetery complex of Trieste.

After some bad luck in the first one I tried (the caretaker caught me immediately and told me I could not take any photos there), I went to the biggest one, got as far away from any personnel as I could, took the snowscape photos, then set up the tripod and voila, Frozen was there! I can’t freaking believe it!

Naturally I had further trouble at home when my external hard drive died on me, but not before I recovered the watercolour title I’d prepared ages ago, so at least I had that silver lining. And at long last, the trilogy is complete!

Of course, I dedicate this to both Katia and Giulia, for believing in me and actively helping me complete the work. I believe true friendship is understanding just how much something means to your loved ones, and going out of your way to help them out!

The Infernal Lords XXIX: Belial

“I’ve been trying to participate in masquerades:
The throne’s been empty for too long.
Paradise for those who play along
And the fortunate ones.

I’ve been begging for the public eye, now watch me fly:
Can you see what I’ve become?”
[ Fate – Tristania ]

Duke Belial is one of the best known and politically prominent figures of Hell. Ironically enough, he was the Chief of Virtues while in Heaven, but has since become one of the most infamous Demons of all time, his deeds being a legend even in Hell itself. Long before the Great Heavenly War began, he openly defied Yahweh’s laws and orchestrated many schemes with his Second-in-Command, Princess Lilith, recruiting Angels to Emperor Lucifer’s cause and even acting as a decoy – convincingly pretending he was the one organising the sedition so that the Supreme Angel could work undisturbed. After his Fall he styled himself the Lord of Deceit and has now turned into one of the Seven Satans of the First-Level as the Demon of Pride. He’s the best liar the world has ever known, even greater than Countess Jezebeth herself, who’s part of his retinue.
Due to the Sin he embodies, he’s a great connoisseur of Yahweh and his ways, and has proved his value with countless acts, ranging from petty to grand, to peeve his rather quick temper, most often using mankind while remaining in the shadows himself. To name a few, he plotted together with Queen Barbelo and Marquis Leviathan to create the Tree of Knowledge drama in Eden, taught mankind the pleasures of fineries and embellishment, suggested that they build the Tower of Babel, caused the Midianites idolatry incident, inspired the crafting of the Golden Calf with gold he stole from Count Mammon’s own reservoir, inspired countless other cases of idolatry throughout history and planned hundreds of other ploys. But his true masterpiece was the Sodom and Gomorrah conspiracy, which he made up all by himself: he deceived the inhabitants of the two cities into abandoning any kind of morals to test the depth Yaweh’s creation could reach, watching them indulge in such depravity that even Pandemonium itself had never seen, and staining the Earth so deeply and beyond redemption that his name became a legend and no creature in Heaven or Hell is said not to know it. He receives countless (and mostly incorrect) mentions in mankind’s texts, which often identify him as “the” Satan.
Belial is the most elegant and sophisticated Demon of the Court, regarded as the Arbiter Elegantiarum of Pandemonium. This makes him a rival of Marquis Adramelech, whom Duke Belial enjoys teasing and ridiculing whenever he gets the occasion, especially in public or in front of Emperor Lucifer; the two even struggled for the position as the Satan of Pride, but Duke Belial easily overcame his rival. He also secured a position as an Astral Demon, mastering the astrological influence of Jupiter.
Many courters turn to him for matters of etiquette, and he’s always the one to write important speeches for others and lead the most sophisticated celebrations. The Demons of Arts work under his close direction and he takes a particular liking to Count Kobal due to their sharing of a quick wit and sharp tongue. Among others, he greatly enjoys the company of Princess Lilith and her sister, Marquise Naamah, as well as that of the debauched Marquis Rosiel. Marquise Decarabia is also part of his retinue, as she often turns to him for advice about floral decoration at Court, and he’s one of the few secret-keepers of Duke Xaphan’s affair with Queen Barbelo. He’s a good comrades with Count Asmodeus, whom he often works with on Earth, but his best friend is definitely Duke Astaroth, mainly due to the latter’s indolent love of vain things as a mean of wasting time and their shared interest in the most material pleasures of life.

Belial: development and symbolysm

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, frame design: GothicNarcissus Photography
Model, hair, make up: Antonio Grimaldi
Styling: GothicNarcissus Photography and Antonio Grimaldi
Additional resources: Meltys-Stock (wings), Myruso (wallpaper)

While he was among the first Demons I decided to include in the project, there’s a special reason why I left Belial as the last Infernal Lord in the series except for Lucifer: he’s one of my favourite Demons.
Okay, not exactly: the real reason is it had as troubled a history as Rosiel’s, much to my dismay. But one of my favourites he is indeed and, at long last, here he comes.

Belial from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary.

Like many of the most prominent Demons, I came across Belial – you guess it – from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary. One of the most intriguing and best written characters in the manga, Belial kicked ass, jump-started some of my favourite plotlines, completely blurred gender binarism and provided some of the best lines in the manga. Of course, when I started planning a series about Demons, he was one of my top-priority researches.
Contrary to most Demons, there’s so much information about Belial that I didn’t even know where to begin when building his character. According to the most accepted etymology, the name means “worthless” and is a term which occurs a few times in the Old Testament. It’s not related to a specific entity, though, but only used to denote sinful people in the idiomatic phrase “sons of belial”.
The first instance of Belial as a being comes from the later Dead Sea Scrolls, which depict him as an “angel of darkness”, often citing him as the Prince of Darkness himself. Other texts, such as the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs or the Ascension of Isaiah also identify Belial as Satan, or generally as a messenger of darkness who’s opposed to Yahweh.
The New Testament mostly omits the term altogether, and Belial is only named by Paul of Tarsus as an enemy of Jesus; in the apocryphal Resurrection of Jesus Christ by Bartholomew, he’s one of the Angels cast out of Heaven. The concept of Belial as a being rather than a concept was thus solidified, but it’s not until the later esoteric grimoires that he starts to be fully sketched out as a Demon of his own.

Belial summoned with his lieutenant by King Solomon, author unknown.

Sebastian Michaelis calls him Belias, identifies him as the former Prince of Virtues and links him to arrogance, vanity and wantonness. While conspicuously absent from Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal, he appears in both the Lesser Key Of Solomon and the Book of Abramelin as a particularly high-ranking figure, and one of the few to retain an angelic form when summoned.
So, having to cherrypick from all this information, I first wrote down what would fit my own canon (fallen Angel, former Virtue, Demon of Pride) and then decided to work his being identified as “the” Devil by having him being so infamous that mankind incorrectly calls him that. I also decided to make him the grey eminence behind the most infamous cases of pride and idolatry from the Bible, and shot out to Kaori Yuki’s character linking him to the Sodom and Gomorrah incident.

Belial from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary.

You might notice that, overall, the final photo has more of an old-school, goth vibe compared to the later works in the series: that’s because I came up with the general idea basically on day one of the project, back in 2009, when I was rocking guyliner and leather cuffs in my everyday life. Coming up with the visuals for the Demon of Pride and Vanity was rather easy; like Astaroth, Kaori Yuki’s version of the character was strongly influential, especially the very fitting illustration above. I immediately opted for butterfly wings rather than feathered ones because butterflies often symbolise vanity, and because that would immediately make Belial stand out from the other Demons (I hadn’t come up with Xaphan and Decarabia yet, so lepidoptera-winged Belial was unique back then). I also wanted him to be fancily dressed in black to emphasise the Sin he represents and I was adamant that he’d have a large-brimmed hat both as a direct shot out to Belial’s Mad Hatter persona in Angel Sanctuary and because it would make a sort of visual black halo around his head, underlining his very prestigious rank.
I’m not sure how much make up my original idea  had, but I think at some point I considered something quite heavy, but not quite as clownesque as Kaori Yuki’s; anyway, that’s one of the parts that got toned down the most once I started drifting away from strict gothic fashion, as having a black-clad figure on a purple background with heavy eye make up would be beyond cliché nowadays. One thing that was clear from day one was the theme colour, purple, which is widely associated with pride and vanity, as well as royalty. Being in the Lesser Key of Solomon, Belial already ha his own seal, so I didn’t have to come up with one of my own.
With all the basics in place, the background half-ready and a quick characterisation to eventually expand upon, all I had to do was cast the role and shoot it… which is where things got spectacularly derailed.

I’ve mentioned that Belial’s history was very similar to Rosiel’s in that, without going into too much detail, I initially cast one of my best friends due to our shared love for Kaori Yuki’s character, some inside jokes that doubled as shot outs, and so on. For the first few years, we had some geographic difficulties that prevented us from shooting (which is hilarious in hindsight, considering I ended up shooting it in Naples anyway), but I didn’t really mind because I was shooting Demons left, right and centre so Belial could wait, even if it was one of my favourites; then my friend moved closer, but things kept coming up from both sides and we never really got down to organising the shoot. By 2016, seven years into the project, there were only Rosiel, Belial and the still uncast Lucifer to go, and it was high time to do something about that. While I was recasting Rosiel out of sheer frustration, I decided to face the fact that I stopped pushing the matter with Belial because I’d had second thoughts for a while. So I took a deep breath, talked to my friend, bailed out and recast the role altogether.

Belial draft from early 2016.

By that time, I had long since realised that my friend Antonio Grimaldi was physically the closest a person could get to my idea of Belial. I’d been following his work for a while on social media and he was very pretty, always stylish and had that intensity I wanted my character to have. Once I had settled the matter with my other friend, Antonio and I had some preliminary talks (I did the sketch above to show him my basic idea), he agreed to take part in the project and we started organising the actual shoot. The idea was to meet more or less midway in Rome, and we scheduled a shoot in November 2016, when I had to go there for an unrelated event. The meeting fell through almost last minute due to things coming up from the both of us and then… well, then 2017 happened.
Long story short, 2017 wasn’t my best year in the mental health department. There were a lot of things at play then: on the one hand, I had had so many setbacks for the whole span of the Infernal Lords project that I was half-willing to give it up altogether. Then, to shoot Belial specifically I had to ask my friend Ginevra for hospitality in Rome and I really felt uncomfortable in forcing my presence on someone; and I had to find a weekend when both she and Antonio were available. Also, I was intimidated by Antonio: I mean, just look at him – he’s modelling agency material, who the hell did I think I was to ask him to model for me? And I had grown a bit uncomfortable in sharing my ideas on such a controversial theme with “normies” out there, lest they thought I was the mess I actually am – read, I had become so insicure that I was doubting my vision. So I just projected my insecurities into thinking Antonio had somehow changed his mind and didn’t know how to tell me, or something like that, when there was no indication of that aside from both of us not being great at keeping in touch on the internet.
It took me one more year and a half, lots of reassurance from Ginevra that I wasn’t an unwanted guest, a session with my therapist and a couple of tarot readings to finally get me to pick a weekend, write to everybody and organise the set. And given my luck with the rest of the project, I was a total train wreck for the two weeks leading up to the trip because I was expecting anything to go wrong and dreading to get yet another disappointment. I literally refused to get my hopes up until the moment I was in Naples with Antonio.

Turns out my worries were totally pointless, of course: first because Antonio is, like, the sweetest cinnamon roll ever and a very lovely person to talk and hang around with; second because, as soon as I reminded him of what wacky project I was going to have him pose for, he almost got more enthusiastic than me.
Contrary to my usual method, we warmed up with a few random shots before we came down to Belial and the best thing about Antonio is just how ridiculously photogenic he is: I’m not kidding, he’s Vogue Hommes material. He’s able to look effortlessly intense, striking a dramatic pose with a brooding expression and still looking like he’s not even trying, like he’s always like that and I just caught him thinking of something else. By the time we got to shooting the Demon, I was so impressed by his work that I just gave him free rein with the pose, other than the hand gesture, and the result is exactly what Belial should look like: vaguely mysterious, effortlessly sophisticated, naturally elegant, the testimonial for the Antichrist Couture on Vogue Pandemonium.
I’m not kidding or overstating: the moment I saw that photo in my camera LCD, suddenly it was all worth it. All the wait and the year-and-a-half postponement and the worries and doubts, and the stress I made up and inflicted upon myself in the few weeks leading up to it. That’s the way I always wanted Belial to look, straight out of my head.

And so, here we are. I have changed the theme song for this work a bagillion times until I settled on Fate by Tristania because it fits pretty well the character. That said, the work is out and the Demon of Pride might be one of the ones I’m the proudest of. It’s the beginning of the end of the Infernal Lords and I’m glad it’s on such a high note. I’ll do my best to top that with Lucifer, when I’ll finally get down to him as well.

Big Boys, They Need To Cry (Wings)

“You’ve been suffering,
Hiding your pain.
Unshed tears on the edge,
“Just water under the bridge”, you say.

Is it too late
To make myself a safe place?
I could not see
The dangers, the sacrifices
You were making.

Hurt you, hurt me,
Hurt you. Never meant to
Hurt you, hurt me.
I need to make myself a safe place
For you to cry, baby,
‘Cause sometimes
Big boys, they need to cry.

So we built you some wings
To help you to flee
From your demanding
Dark angel and me.

Is it too late
To make myself a safe place?
I went too far
When we flew too close
To our star.

It hurt you, hurt me,
Hurt you. Never meant to
Hurt you, hurt me.
I need to make myself a safe place
For you to cry, baby,
To cry, baby,
‘Cause sometimes
Big boys, they need to cry.
‘Cause sometimes
Big boys, they need to cry.”

[ Wings – Tori Amos ]

I feel like I should spend a few words on this photo, if only for how much work it took me and what satisfaction it brought me in the end.

So, Tori Amos’ latest album, Native Invader, flooded my mind with images, one of which is this one. I didn’t really sit down and think like I often do, I just visualised something and decided to go for it. This is why I didn’t really consider the whole metaphor in the lyrics when I came up with this image: what really got me about this song is the part about big boys needing to cry, i.e. get in touch with their emotions and fragility, which I find a very important message nowadays. Also, I liked the idea of trying to become someone’s safe place even if there’s been some disagreement and mutual hurting: it’s never too late to turn around and mend a relationship.
This is pretty much what inspired me: the eponymous wings are not attached to the protagonist so he can fly away as in the lyrics, but to the narrator, laid down as a shelter of sort so the protagonist can let himself feel fragile. It was a compelling image but I really didn’t know how to pull it off: nine years of Infernal Lords have taught me how difficult it is to find realistic wings for shooting, unless I turn to full-blown digital art.

And that’s pretty much what I did: instead of having actual wings, in real life or added digitally, I decided to draw them as if I were drawing on a photo with markers.
I came up with this idea while listening to another couple of songs: first came Bang and then Climb. I envisioned both as photograph-drawing hybrids, and then I felt like Reindeer King and Wildwood could work in a similar style, too. So why not Wings? So next thing I knew, I had a little series of visually homogenous works ready to be done.

I’ll be honest: this was a very difficult image to pull off. Not the photo per se which, once I did some location scouting, was one of the smoothest self-portraits I ever took, but the post-production was massive. I honestly didn’t even know if I was skilled enough to do it, as drawing is not my strongest suit. It took me three solid evening of work and I’m sure that someone with more practice with a graphic tablet would have done it in half the time and a tenth of the effort, but having drawn something that actually looks good, blends with the photo and is exactly what I envisioned is a massive self-confidence fix. Perhaps I really am capable of doing more than I think and am just too scared to try out!

Now, before this turns into the billionth unfinished long-term project, I’m not really making big plans about it. I’m not even going to do the whole album as some songs I really don’t like, or they just don’t speak to me. I’m just taking it as it is and doing what I can when I can.
On a side note about the title: Wings is going to be a work in my Inspiration Hurts series, so I decided to keep that as a subtitle while using the line that caught my attention as the main one. This is also going to happen if I decide to take the other photos I have in mind.

Pi

“Temporary like a prism,
Being involved and being ignored.
But your broken glass charisma
Is my one and only source.

Circularly, you remember
Maybe you or me or both.
Sorry you, sorry me,
Proudly fail, resume indoors.

Distance closes our throat.
Be so sweet can’t replace.
Miles unconnectable,
Time is improvable.
Contradictions you say,
We’re so ignorable,
So your static, empty words
Just wish a syllable.

Our bodies are paralysing us,
Selling our souls otherwise.
Feed crippled mind and fertilise,
Selling our souls otherwise.
Our bodies are paralysing us,
Selling our souls otherwise.
Feed crippled mind and fertilise,
Selling our souls otherwise.

Free our horses, my pretender,
Don’t you let them go astray.
Colours flash, the only minded.
Colours… fade.

Distance closes our throat.
Be so sweet can’t replace.
Miles unconnectable,
Time is improvable.
Contradictions you say,
We’re so ignorable,
So your static, empty words
Just wish a syllable.

Our bodies are paralysing us,
Selling our souls otherwise.
Feed crippled mind and fertilise,
Selling our souls otherwise.

Step into pain circles,
Enter the whispering.
Wash out your construction,
Fragments of rain.

Our bodies are paralysing us,
Selling our souls otherwise.
Feed crippled mind and fertilise,
Selling our souls otherwise.”

[ Pi – Leandra ]

Pi has always been a tricky one in my Morphine project: while I absolutely love this song, the lyrics are quite abstract and all over the place with their imagery. I could pinpoint the general theme – working out a difficult romantic relationship – but it didn’t give me much to work with visually.
The music, on the other hand, has always evoked me a dynamic image of a couple somewhere in-between a dance and a fight: something coreographic that could encompass both a feeling of separation and an attempt at reconciliation.
With so little in mind, I sort of shelved the song to the back of the project to focus on more approachable concepts… until this happened.

Basically, when I had my nice shoot with Knajfer Wintermere and his handsome real-life boyfriend Riccardo, I mostly allowed them the freedom to just act naturally in front of the camera and be the beautiful couple they are. At some point I attempted to set up another Morphine photo which didn’t really work out, got frustrated over that and just let them fool around a little on their own. When I focussed back, there they were: Riccardo is a very atletic boy and was doing splits for the fun of it with Knajfer. There was just something about the intensity of their gaze that hit me in the face with all the power of the piano riff in the second half of the song, and I instantly knew this was what I wanted Pi to look like in my project. There, out of the music itself.
The prism / icosahedron was a last-minute postproduction idea I had to give a further link to the song lyrics and because sketches surreally overimposed on the photos are a recurring theme of sort in the project.

And so, that’s it: Knajfer and Riccardo basically pulled me over a potentially huge hitch in my project just by being an adorable couple. Which is precisely the reason why I’m saving so many photos for people who truly have feelings for each other: some things you cannot act, they have to come from the heart.

The Infernal Lords XXVIII: Rosiel

“We thought love could change our names
And free us from our earthly chains.

Oh, we wanted to believe in it,
To believe in it,
But they couldn’t.
We wanted to believe that love
Could lift us to the skies and above,
But they wouldn’t
Follow.”
[ Darlings – Susanne Sundfør ]

Marquis Rosiel is a former Dominion who rebelled against Yahweh. Realising immediately the immense power of persuasion of two of Heaven’s greatest taboos, Love and Erotic Pleasure, since before the Great Heavenly War he took an active role in recruiting new Angels to Emperor Lucifer’s cause, working closely with Count Asmodeus and Princess Lilith. While his two comrades focussed respectively on Lust and sexual instincts, he was more keen on the pleasures of sheer seduction, as well as showing more or less directly to fellow Angels how Love could be a mutual and unstoppable force, different from the one-sided worship Yahweh demanded of them. Among those he turned against God are Marquis Andrealphus and Duke Xaphan, whose love for Marquise Anamelech and Queen Barbelo respectively he encouraged, and his former Chief, Prince Absinthion.
After his Fall, he took such pride in being accused of tainting the Love of God that he styled himself the Demon of Tainted Love, making it to the Fourth Level; and indeed he can manipulate other beings’ feelings, most notably the Mortals’, and direct their affection at his will, towards mundane things and consuming affairs. He’s often spotted in the Sublunar World and his white wings and youthful, innocent appearance gave rise to many human legends such as the winged God of Love, Cupid.
His powers work to a much lesser extent on the other Demons, but he occasionally enjoys creating ephemeral tension between the Courtiers, much to the amusement of his great friend, Countess Jezebeth, who can gossip about that. Despite the tricks he plays, he’s a beloved figure at Court as many of the Fallen Angels he helped turn still hold him in great regard; he’s especially close to Marquise Anamelech and Marquise Andrealphus, being himself an Astral Demon, who controls the influence of Uranus. Along with Marquis Leonard, Marquise Naamah and, occasionally, Duke Astaroth, he’s also part of Princess Lilith’s retinue of Incubi and Succubi, nightly Demons who fly to Earth to feed off the energies of unaware sleeping Mortals.

Rosiel: development and symbolysm

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, frame design, styling: GothicNarcissus
Model, hair: Edoardo Marreu
Additional resources: Myruso (wallpaper)

Oh boy, Rosiel. Everyone familiar with Kaori Yuki’s work (and their sisters too) know this name: the infamous Inorganic Angel whose insanity and obsessive love for his twin sister Alexiel set in motion most of the events in Angel Sanctuary. A most charming psychopath, but also a tragic figure with a tormented background, he is definitely one of my favourite characters from the manga, if not the favourite character. Oh, and I ship the Hell out of Rosiel x Katan.

Rosiel from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary.

The story of how a character with the same name ended up in my project is pretty simple: Kaori herself mentioned in the side notes of her manga that she found out there was a Fallen Angel called Rosier in the popular lore. And there he was indeed, mentioned in A Dictionary Of Angels by Gustav Davidson, who cites Sebastien Michaelis’ Admirable History of the Possession and Conversion of a Penitent Woman as the source. His description is pretty specific: he is the former number two of Dominion, resides in Hell and is the Demon Patron of tainted love and seduction. Whoa: so much information about a Demon was not to be overlooked. Besides, as Marina Diamandis says, “L.O.V.E. = E.V.O.L. – love is evil”, there needed to be a Demon of Love. I also really love the name – and here we’ve got a side note: the R and L sounds are the same in Japanese, so in the manga Rosier and Rosiel are phonetically and graphically the same word. It is interesting to note that the official lore says that Fallen Angels often change their name from -el to -er after their Fall, so technically both are viable anyway. I ultimately decided to go with the latter to keep it consistent with others from my series (like Furcifel, Azazel or Mephistophel), but mostly because I was fond of Kaori Yuki’s character and I wanted to pay a tribute to him.
The similarities end here, though: I have such a degree of respect for this character and its importance in the Angel Sanctuary plot that from the very beginning I decided to do a completely different rendition more closely based on the original lore. No electric wires, no flowy perwinkle hair, no insanity – just the Demon of Tainted Love and an Incubus (the female version of the Succubus). And also the Demon in charge of the power of Uranus because I like lame puns.

An early concept draft of Rosiel.

Now, according to the file information, the concept sketch above is dated 19th March 2011: that’s at least just how old the idea for this Demon is. Back then I was discussing it with a fellow Angel Sanctuary’s Rosiel fan and dear friend of mine, with whom we decided to do the shoot: that’s the actual sketch I did on Windows Live Messenger to show him the pose I had in mind. Most of the styling and the actual concept came up that night, including leather trousers and posing bare-chested with red ribbons, which simbolise love and sexual tension – also a nod to Japanese folklore that depicts love as a red thread binding the little fingers of two lovers.
It seemed a rather easy photo to take considering the casting went so smoothly, except the shoot kept being postponed over and over. Because there was no time, because there was no place, because my firend’s hair wasn’t long enough or the colour wasn’t right, because he was busy, because he didn’t feel like doing it, and on and on we went. I even mentioned in my 2013 FAQs on deviantART that the work on the series had slowed down because I needed to pressure a couple of friends into organising the shoots, but 2014 went by with me asking without any sign that the thing would be done and then there came 2015, my most artistically frustrating year to date, in which I was generally little productive.
Now, I tried to write to my friend a few times hoping an Infernal Lord would shake me from my block, but both he and I are difficult people who often need some alone time, which resulted in a general lack of communication all through the year. Either we didn’t go further than pleasentry and he disappeared before I could bring up the subject, or he didn’t reply at all even on unrelated matters, stalling the work completely. I grew more and more frustrated with the situation until, after the Mesmerism debacle, I decided that I was having no more shit from anyone at all so screw him, it was high time for a recast. All things considered I didn’t even bother telling him, but after five years I doubt he’ll notice or care anyway: I did more than a fair share of attempts to shoot with him, if he did care he might as well have brought up the subject himself at least once.
As usual, I came across Edoardo through social media rather than modelling platforms. I had the thought he would fit the role ever since, but he was blonde at the time: that would have made him too similar to Furcifel and clashed a bit with the colour scheme, so I wasn’t really sure and didn’t ask him immediately. Then last month he went brown and I had no more doubts: I wrote to him, he immediately liked the project and the idea, we scheduled a day for the shoot and everything was done in, like, fifteen minutes, fine and dandy. Despite his worrying that he wouldn’t do a good job due to lack of modelling experience, after I styled and directed him he got so much into the character that he immediately managed to get the languid, relaxed pose and the alluring, mischievous expression we needed. At long last, Rosiel was done, he was fabulous and I have absolutely no regrets about the recast.
Not being in The Lesser Key Of Solomon, Rosiel lacks a seal of his own. I chose one version the Seal of Beleth because it has heart-shaped motives in it. Seriously, that’s it. Also, I initially planned to blend it behind one of the red ribbons, but while I was editing I changed my mind because I wanted those hearts to freaking show – that and I loved the challenge of blending it onto the shoulder.
The theme colour, perwinkle, is a direct tribute to Kaori Yuki, as it is the colour of her Rosiel’s hair in most official illustrations. My friend and I had originally agreed to use a PJ Harvey song but what can I say, last year Susanne Sundfør came out with her masterpiece, Ten Love Songs, from which I chose Darlings (after a tough fight with Slowly) to best represent the idea I had for this Demon.

So here we are, twenty-eight down and two to go. Lucifer is going to be the very last work from the series and meanwhile I’m trying to settle things to recast the last of the Seven Satans. The approaching end of the Infernal Lords series honestly scares me, but I already have a new magnum opus in the cards afterwards, so I hope that will push me to complete it. Let’s see how things turn out next month.

The Infernal Lords XXVII: Furcifel

“He’s holding for the moment of the fall,
Stolen knowledge by minds unformed.
Regulate the demolition of
Annexe for the differing thoughts.
Discarded sparks left years ago
Evoked a language much more austere.
Reverberating with figments,
He left a trace of translucence.

Can you see the storm getting closer now?
Tell me how it feels being out there.”
[ Storm – Theatre of Tragedy ]

Count Furcifel, known among the Mortals as Furfur, is a former powerful Throne who was part of Duke Astaroth’s closest entourage before the latter’s Fall, but kept serving undercover as Great Angel Zaphkiel’s Second-in-Command after the Great Heavenly War. He was the namesake of his former Choir as the wielder of the Thunder, the instrument of Yahweh’s justice, with which Count Furcifel reminded mankind of God’s authority. He was busted during the turmoil following the Babel Tower incident, arriving in Hell at the same time as Countess Agares. He kept however full control over his Element and became the Demon of Storms and Lightning, a power he is always eager to unleash against the Angels whenever he gets the occasion. While not officially a military himself, his energetic, vibrant personality and great force make him a suitable companion for Marquis Nergal’s patrols at the border of Hell, during which Count Furcifel can vent his powers and escape the frustrating boredom of life at Court. Always eager to create mischief, he flies to Earth quite often to conjure devastating thunderstorms; the Mortals’ sightings of him over the centuries resulted in the stereotypical image of horned and dragon-winged Demons.
As his Element combines those of Duke Astaroth, Queen Barbelo and Marquis Leviathan, he maintains good comradeship with all three, especially the Queen, who in turn appreciates his fierce temper, and the Duke of Terror, whom he can often shake from his apathy for a flight to Eart. He also gets along with the Chief of his Level, Duke Xaphan, who often asks for his help to test his latest inventions. The two of them were the ones who inspired mankind how to exploit the power of Electricity to sustain their technology, accelerating exponentially their progress and their emancipation from Yahweh’s grasp.

Furcifel: development and symbolism

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, frame design, styling, background stock photos: GothicNarcissus
Model, hair: Francisco De Rosa
Additional resources: Amptone-stock (texture), Thy-Darkest-Hour (wings), UniversalKinase (thunderbolt) sxc.hu (horns)

Here we go with a new Infernal Lord, Furcifel, the Demon of Storms.
First things first: in traditional sources, such as Colin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal, this Demon is referred to as Furfur. Why did I decide to change his name to Furcifel (something I’ve never done to any other Demon)? Well, it’s a purely aesthetic choice: Furfur is awfully similar to the Italian word for dandruff, which is a bit disgusting; some scholars suppose the etymology for his name comes from a corruption of the Latin word “furcifer”, which means “rogue” and sounds much more fitting for such a badass Demon, especially if you stylise it as “Furcifel” to recall other angelic names.
So, provided that I wanted to include a Demon of Storms into my series, why did I go for one with such a troublesome name, instead of just choosing another? Well, just look at his picture from the Dictionnaire Infernal: where else have you seen such an amazing-looking traditional rendition of a Demon? It’s beautiful! As soon as I found out about him, he instantly climbed my favourite Demons list, so he had to be in my series!

Furfur from the Dictionnaire Infernal.

Such a beautiful depiction deserved a tribute, which is why I decided to basically just turn him into a fallen angel but retain the dragon wings and deer horns. The latter got bonus points because they visually recall the lightning motif and fit the Demon of Thunderstorms perfectly. Also, when I wrote down his biography I could easily justify this by having him being spotted often by mankind and generating the myth of dragon-winged, horned Demons in the first place. Speaking of which, I didn’t even have to make up too many things, as the Dictionnaire Infernal already says he’s an Earl (a Count) and commands all sorts of thunderstorms, and other sources list him as a fallen Throne (the name “Throne” comes from the same root as “thunder”, which is his element).
The rest of the symbolism was quite easy to pull off: a thunderbolt in his hand and a stormy background (which I shot and blended already a couple of years ago) would demonstrate his powers perfectly. I came up with the styling quite easily too, opting for a leather jacket to give him even more badassery.

All of this happened quite early in the development of the series, but the longest part was, as usual, casting the right model. Given the elegance of the deer figure in the drawing, I wanted someone slender, with delicate facial features to portray Furcifel. At first, I asked an acquaintance of mine if she was interested in posing dressed up as a male, to which she agreed. I didn’t bring up the subject again for what I think might have been a couple of years because I never had the chance to organise a meeting, and when I finally did she had changed her mind. This troubled me a bit because I was quite specific in my mind about Furcifel’s general body frame, but then, last summer, I came across Francisco in the best way I’ve been coming across people lately: insulting Lana del Rey.
The thing is, lately I’ve become much more socially awkward than I’ve ever been and I have quite a hard time handling interpersonal relations, especially with people I don’t know. I have spent a few months kind of staring at Francisco from afar while the idea of him being a perfect cast call for Furcifel kept growing in the back of my mind. As I eventually told him, what made him perfect for the role was not only his body frame and delicate features, but especially his melancholic-looking eyes, which would add some nostalgia for Heaven and thus extra depth to the character. Also, there is a huge shortage of blondes in the Court. I found him so perfect for the role that I was too scared of a refusal and could not bring myself to propose him the role. Seriously, we made friends on Facebook on June, started talking sporadically in August and I could only find the guts to ask him to pose in December, riding the wave of enthusiasm I got from Leonard.
Even though we scheduled a shoot in February, he decided to pull off almost last minute, but since we had found out we get along very well we decided to meet anyway and I took the chance to basically force him to pose. Although, in my defence, I have to say he got almost more enthusiastic than I was when the final deadline was decided. It took me forever to postproduce the photo because in the past weeks I’ve been on minimum inspiration and I’ve got tons of older works to do, but at last, here it is.
I always say that, in hindsight, waiting even years to shoot my Demons is always a good thing because I get more proficient in what I do and I can pull off certain editing effects better. This is especially true in this case as, on the one hand, I now have a softbox which was extremely useful, given how I had to direct the light according to the bolt he would be holding in his hand. And there was no way on Earth, Heaven or Hell I could have given the right highlights and shadows to the horns to make them look tridimensional a few years ago, let alone blend the horn into the skin like I’ve done now. Seriously, I’m very, very satisfied with how I edited this picture.

Furcifel by GothicNarcissus – detail. Click to enlarge.

Now, the final details: yellow is the theme colour I chose because, on the one hand, I was seriously running out of colours, on the other it didn’t fit any other Demon, and finally because it’s often associated with lightnings and electricity, especially in children’s drawings (but you can also look at Pokémon, for that matter: many Electric Types are yellow). On the other hand, choosing the song was a piece of cake: I hope that Storm, by my favourite band Theatre of Tragedy, doesn’t really need much explanation. No, okay, it does, ‘cause beside the title, the lyrics are just perfect for the work.

The Infernal Lords XXVI: Leonard

“See beyond the rationale,
Accept the fate that nothing is meant to be.
Be the least connected,
Stay true to the last original.

Apply layers to reality,
Things only you can see.
Add a beat to normality
To tap the core of insanity.”
[ The Mundane And The Magic – Dark Tranquillity & Nell Sigland ]

Grand Master Marquis Leonard is a former high-ranking Virtue long since turned into a powerful Fourth-Level Demon. He has got the power to bend the laws of both the Astral and Physical Planes at will, which is commonly known as Witchcraft. While many Demons can do so by casting spells of their own, most are only limited to their own elements, while Marquis Leonard’s influence can range to any known field. Thus, humankind cherishes him particularly: he is known as the Demon of Witchcraft and Sorcery and any Mortal willing to sell their souls to him will receive the gift of Magic, which is the power to influence the world around them at will. Marquis Leonard is summoned much more often than any other Goetic Demon due to the formidable powers he can give: Elemental Demons possess full control over their own elements, but they cannot bestow such powers to Mortals unless they directly possess them, while Marquis Leonard can. He can also give passive powers, with which Mortals can achieve a degree of control of the cosmic forces through a certain set of rituals, actions, combination of words, and catalysts such as symbols, seals, herbs, minerals or artefacts. Therefore, he is the main reference to those who wish to become witches or wizards and is often adored as an idol under many Pagan names.
He is often called upon together with his close associate, Marquise Naamah, the Mother of Divination. Along with her and other nightly Demons such as Princess Lilith, Duke Astaroth and Marquis Rosiel he roams the Earth as an Incubus to feed on the energies of sleeping Mortals, targeting in particular dreams of ambition. Thanks to his enormous powers, he is also a member of Duke Beelzebub’s Order of the Great Fly. He and Duke Xaphan share a sort of friendly rivalry, as Marquis Leonard likes shaping the world by bending nature’s laws with his powers while Duke Xaphan prefers studying and applying them to his technology. A particularly learned Demon, Marquis Leonard also shares a good comradeship with Countess Agares and often visits the Infernal Library, whose Magic section was almost entirely compiled by himself.

Leonard: development and symbolism

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, frame design, styling: GothicNarcissus

Model, hair: Davide Marcuzzo

Additional resources: Amptone-stock (texture)

Oh, hey, the Infernal Lords are still progressing! I feel kind of bad for taking more than a year between the last work and this one, but 2014 has been quite contrived, both outside and inside photography, and the project had to wait.
First things first: I wanted a Demon of Magic and Witchcraft in my series. Provided that this project draws quite strictly from Jewish an Christian mythology, in my continuity witches and wizards call upon a Demon to receive their powers (and I don’t care if it is not Wiccanly accurate, that’s an entirely different mythology), so such a Demon was quite necessary. Despite Leonard not being from the Lesser Key of Solomon, I found him quite easily in Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnare Infernal as a nightly Demon who presides the Sabbath and bestows the gift of black magic to humans. I was a little puzzled by his name, as it is a real given name, but I also found a very inspirational illustration of him which cleared any doubts.

Leonard from the Dictionnaire Infernal.

Purged of the monstrous features, the whole idea of the pose, the staff (or, in my case, a wand) in his right hand and the beard to keep close to the goatish theme stuck. I came up pretty quickly with the idea of using a wand I purchased back in my teenish wiccan days and an as of then yet unused notebook with a fancy cover I found in Malta some eight years ago (you can also see it in The Narcissist Song, and it has now become my tarot journal). Also, a few years ago my mother sew me an amazing black and red cloak, which would perfectly fit the theme.
Much more troublesome was the casting of Leonard because I could not find someone who fit the “wizard” type. I had a few ideas which didn’t work out for several reasons, and then I met Davide, the lead singer of the progressive metal band SoulStorm, who fit perfectly. We initially scheduled a shoot in August, but even if we did it, I had to scrap all the photos I took because the light was pretty awful, too much even to try to fix it in Lightroom and Photoshop. At least, the experience with Decarabia has taught me something. Due to my summer break at my mother’s and other stuff, a new shoot had to wait until November, when I stopped at Davide’s place for an afternoon on my way back from Lucca. As I had done some paid work at the Comic convention, I spent much of November working on those photos and I could not find the time and concentration to work on Leonard until yesterday. The postproduction was smooth and quick, so here it is at last. On a side note, I had toyed with the background very long ago (at least as early as 2011); even though it didn’t fit the photo because it was too distracting, here you can see the original texture I had come up with.

The symbolism is pretty immediate: the wand, the grimoire and Solomon’s Seal projecting from the crystal represent witchcraft, as does the cloak. As I mentioned, I took most of the pose directly from the illustration in the Dictionnaire Infernal, but I decided to give it some sort of “fallen saint” theme to represent Leonard’s huge powers. I decided to make his seal (actually borrowed from Volac) into the halo because Leonard is quite dressed up and there wasn’t much skin for it; but most of it was covered by his head anyway, so I engraved it on the grimoire back cover too. I also decided not to give him wings because, on the one hand, he can just poof anywhere magically and, on the other, they would be redundant and clashing with the cloak. I chose liver as the main colour because I wanted some muted sepia-ish tones which would recall a dusty painting. I had some trouble choosing a song, but eventually The Mundane And The Magic by Dark Tranquillity featuring Nell Sigland stuck for pretty obvious reasons.

Coloured

“Remember, do you?
Do you remember?
Do you remember
As you flew around the corner
On a flying carpet,
As I woke, I woke up
In this dreamless metabolic forest?
Do you remember?
Do you remember?

Then there was your cup of ideas.
I thought you were intended for advices,
For advices from wheresoever,
And I dropped my volition in dull judges
And you see what comes out
When we hypnotise our whatever,
Whatever it is meant to be.
(Whatever it is meant).

Your dream is not coloured,
I think you should get back in time.
Your dream is not coloured,
You’ve never ordered me to draw a line.
Your dream is not coloured,
I think you should get back in time.
Your dream is not coloured.
Your dream is not coloured,
I’ll get you neither a pillow nor a blanket.
Your dream is not coloured.

Then there was a light,
And what a monkey business,
Monkey busyness,
A monkey business
From wheresoever
I dropped my volition and doubting,
(What a monkey busyness)
And you see what comes out,
What comes out.
And you see what comes out,
What comes out,
When we...

Your dream is not coloured,
I think you should get back in time.
Your dream is not coloured,
You’ve never ordered me to draw a line.
Your dream is not coloured,
I’ll get you neither a pillow nor a blanket to define,
Your dream is not coloured,
So give me the finest paintbrush
Dived in sweeping shine,
The finest paintbrush
Dived in sweeping shine.”

[ Coloured – Leandra ]

New Morphine work, this time from Metamorphine. For some reasons, when I first listened to the album, this song went relatively unnoticed; with more listens, it opened a whole new world of imagery and I came to really love it. Thus, the idea for this work is quite new compared to many other Metamorphine concepts, especially because back in 2008 I would have never imagined this kind of postproduction, as purchasing a graphic tablet was not even close to my plans; nor was getting a bj-doll, for that matter.

The main reason behind the somewhat child-like imagery in this photo is that the song itself sounds like a nursery rhyme of sort (a real, non-twisted one), including soothing rhythmic onomatopoeiae. This, combined with the prominent oneiric theme in the lyrics, made me think of a man-child drawing his dreams into reality. You might find certain similarities with Switchblade, and I honestly don’t know which idea came first. Both photos have butterflies and magic swirls of colour originating from something, which represent the inner world of the subject that overlaps with the “real world”. But I don’t think one harms the other, as they represent something completely different – love in one case, dreams and fantasy in the other. Another thing, which I realised just after finishing the work, is I basically used the same colours as Naberius’ “magical paint” for the dreamy stuff in here. I honestly didn’t think of that, it’s just how I visualised the image in my mind, so I guess those hues are planted somewhere in my subconscious as a visual manifestation of one’s inner world.
The theme of childhood, specifically a child in the body of an adult, is also prominent in the official video of the song, which includes Leandra playing with a doll: I paid homage to that by including Ludwig in the picture. I was undecided whether to set the photo in my own room to give a further nod to the video, or in a “dreamless metabolic forest” as in the lyrics, and I ultimately opted for the latter to give it a lighter feel (the song is quite light compared to many others in the record) and because the green of the trees would look amazingly rich with the Metamorphine colour filter I am using. And because the photo now represents me bringing dreams to the dreamless forest.

The idea is a few months old, but I shot it just last week because I was hoping to get some assistance with it. As I couldn’t find any, I resolved to do everything by myself, from going (by bus) to the intended location to setting up the camera with the timer on a tripod, keeping an eye on Ludwig so he wouldn’t fall and break, and so on. It took me several takes (and a lot of sweating, goddamn July) to get the right image, but the result exceeds my highest expectations and makes me especially proud. The postproduction was quite smooth as I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to get, so here we go, with a swarm of butterflies flying directly out of my head.