Darkest Hour

“Hold on,
I’ll be home soon
‘Cause I know
There’s nothing more that you can do –

When suddenly, it all fades to black,
Suddenly, it all goes away,
Suddenly, you’re on your own
And struggling to breathe again.
I know it isn’t easy for you,
Knowing there’s a war in your head,
Knowing that your body isn’t
Strong enough to reach for help.

But in your darkest hour
I will the light the way,
I will help you cope
Through the hardest days.
When it all breaks down
I will keep you safe,
In your darkest hour
I will light the way.

So hold on
With all that you have left.
We can take it step by step:
Just do your best, acquiesce.

‘Cause everybody looks just like you
But they can never know how it feels,
They can never know of all the suffering
That you conceal.
How did it end up this way?
How much more can you take?
Will you ever find the strength
To get back on your feet again?

But in your darkest hour
I will light the way,
I will help you cope
Through the hardest days.
When it all breaks down,
I will keep you safe,
In your darkest hour
I will light the way.

So hold on
In your darkest hour,
In your darkest hour,
Just hold on,
Hold on.

In your darkest hour
I will light the way,
I will help you cope
Through the hardest days.
When it all breaks down
I’ll keep you safe,
In your darkest hour
I will light the way.”

[ Darkest Hour – Hurts ]

Yeah, well. Remember all my high proclamations of never ever saving another photo from the Inspiration Hurts project for close friends ever again, to stop taking photos that double as tokens of affection, love is weakness, I’m Regina the Evil Queen, and all of that? I can’t. I mean, I tried. I… okay, let’s rewind.

Look, my dear friend Luisa just happened to be in town specifically to model for me – yeah, imagine that – and since there was her, and there was me, and this photo needed two people to tango, I decided to throw it into our session. Seize the moment, now or never, all that staff. It just so happens that the song it’s inspired by is also very appropriate for the two of us, and that’s a nice bonus that… okay, no.

Really, I just wanted Luisa to be in this photo, and she just happens to actually be a good friend who cares about this stuff.

Luisa and I go back over a decade. We’ve both been through some darkness and, even though we’re not the most talkative of people, we’ve always been there for each other if need be – basically, this song works both ways for us. Besides, she is the one who introduced me to Hurts’ music in the first place by suggesting the concept for Evelyn, so this song and the related photo just had to be ours.

Also – did I mention it already? – a very good friend of mine comes to Sardinia not just to mind her own business but actually to take photos with me, and we end up taking an Inspiration Hurts photo that doubles as a token of affection and a symbol of how much we care for each other, and we actually go through with it, and she doesn’t even have to manipulate or gaslight her way out of it – I mean, could I ever in a million years pass on such a chance to stick it to a certain someone? Of course not, I’m just that petty.

Speaking of petty, if this composition reminds you of a certain other photo from the Inspiration Hurts project, one from a song that’s all about “please save it and get lost”, one which has aged better than the finest vintage you’ll ever drink like I’m a goddamn prophet or something… yeah, that’s deliberate – that’s literally the entire concept.

I took the basic premise of that photo – boy and girl, he to the left and she to the right, sitting and looking out to the sea – and flipped everything else: this one is in colour instead of monochromatic, the sky is clear instead of heavily clouded, the image is sharp instead of grainy, and we’re touching instead of just sitting there side by side contemplating the silent yet inevitable demise of our relationship before one of us walks away, and it’s closely framed around us rather than being wide and including lots of background.

I really wanted to mirror that photo to hopefully make another “prophecy”, that Luisa and I will weather the darkest hours silently having each other’s back, and that brighter times will finally come.

Because there are people in my life who do deserve photos that double as tokens of affection, goddamnit. (Just so you know it, I still hold a grudge for things that went down on my seventh birthday, so no, there’s no chance I’m going to drop this anytime soon.)

 

Now, to be completely honest, you can tell that my last bad experience shooting in Sardinia with friends from elsewhere still seriously haunts me way beyond the occasional snark by the fact that I sort of felt guilty to bring up my own personal project while I was working at our joint one. Aptly, this is the very last photo we took, and initially I was even trying to take it in full daylight as not to inconvenience Luisa with having to wait for sunset on the evening before her departure, in case she wanted to rest. When it became clear that wasn’t working and I would not be able to postproduce my way out of those light conditions to achieve what I had in mind, Luisa herself was the one to suggest we’d come down at a proper hour and take the photo the way it was meant to be – again, imagine that. It was a very nice way to end our four-day photoshoot, and one which made me feel appreciated. It’s another step in the direction of rebuilding the trust in people who agree to help me with my own passion projects.

So here we are, sitting side by side, watching together as the sun rises and puts an end to our darkest hour, all with those real-life undertones that will make me cherish this photo way beyond its artistic merits.

Thank you, Luisa, for believing in me and making art with me.

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.

Glorious

“Glorious!

There’s a place I go,
A place I always stand alone
And need no witness to my throne.
Here I say my piece
And have no need to be believed:
The bridge I build will carry me
Beyond the creatures of your sea.

Glorious, pure-insular,
The very first to draw the air
And touch the earth, I built it there.
Oh glorious, glorious, ooh!

Here I win my day,
I make my kill upon the grave
And need no hero to be saved.
Here the light still shines
Despite the odds and all the time,
Despite the Gods and their design.

Glorious, pure-insular,
The very first to draw the air
And touch the earth, I built it there.
Oh glorious, glorious, ooh!
Glorious, pure-insular,
The very first to draw the air
And touch the earth, I built it there.
Oh glorious, glorious, ooh!”

[ Glorious – Phildel ]

Glorious was probably the first concept from the Wave Your Flags series I came up with, before even thinking of making an entire series (though I had the feeling Luisa would agree to one). The first few seconds of the song are already so powerful and evocative that I had the full-blown image in my head (minus a couple of details), just waiting to be taken.

It also probably helped that the breathtaking aesthetics of Aurora Consurgens by my dear friend ContessaNera were ingrained in my memories, only for the song to bring them up again and influence my own photo. Beside Veronica’s work, I also drew inspiration from the Phidias’ Athena Parthenos, a (now lost) sculpture of triumphant goddess Athena holding Nike, the Winged Victory, in the palm of her hand.

And thus, the idea of Luisa holding the statuette of an eagle with its wings spread, looking triumphant against a strong light source, was born.

The styling was easy too: once we started talking about the project more concretely, I chose this dress for its metallic sequins, which would provide texture and highlights to the backlit silhouette of the dark fabric. In that regard, the sheer fabric also allowed for the breeze to give volume to the skirt and floaty sleeves, which added movement to the otherwise solemn photo.

On a side note, this photo was once again taken atop the Electric Heights stairway, the same place where I shot the Wandering Stars photos. As my light equipment is in Trieste, I had to make do with natural light, and in the afternoon that place gives a beautiful, mostly unobstructed view of the sun setting towards the sea, so the background turns out perfectly white with the sun providing the necessary back-light.

Once the photo was done, I asked Veronica for advice on how to best include sun rays in postproduction to give it that “glorious” feel.

On a total side note, the eagle statuette we used was a career accolade my maternal grandfather had earned, which was passed down to my mother. I’m glad I could include a piece of my family history into one of my works.

And this wraps up the Wave Your Flags series. I am very satisfied with this project, both for the actual photos themselves, the final works, turned out, and also how we worked while making them. We were well-organised, our schedule was tight but took full advantage of the locations so that we wouldn’t have to take too many (or too long) trips in-between shoots, and we managed to work around or push through some unexpected circumstances that came up along the way, all the while also throwing in a few photos for different projects while we were at that.

Thank you all so much for the warm reception you’ve given this project. A huge thanks to Phildel, who has kindly shared some of our photos and was super supportive of our efforts to turn her music into image. It’s always amazingly rewarding when the artists who inspire my photos find something of their work reflected back from mine.

Floods

“Through the years we’ve travelled, you and me,
Through the seasons, solar systems.
I’ve never kept such faithful company,
I always knew you’d go the distance.

Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.

You became a colour I could see,
Flashing through each pure emotion.
You became the mark of what it means
To say a prayer with pure devotion.

Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.
Bring your flood to me, my friend, I need you.”

[ Floods – Phildel ]

Floods presented me with a little series of challenges ever since I started conceptualising it. First of all, it’s the third song in the album with a sea-oriented metaphor, which required me to think of all three photos simultaneously so that I could make them different. Second, the concepts for Wild Sea and, to a lesser extent, A Great Wave were a bit up in the air until I could have reliable weather forecasts, so that in turn led me to leave Floods open. Third, my original concept required for Luisa to actually be in the water, which in turn required me to schedule it so that it wouldn’t affect the other photos. And finally, when that became unfeasible (for very real and objectively hindering reasons, unlike someone I may think of), I had to rework the concept around that so it’d still make sense (though it made scheduling easier).

With the sea in Wild Sea representing the inner world and the wave in A Great Wave some anxiety or insecurity to be saved from, the flood in Floods represents the affection and support of a friend which the protagonist is longing for. The new concept thus called for Luisa to reach for the incoming water filling a dry-ish patch of rocks, giving a sense of longing for the titular flooding.

Luckily, by this point I was already sure that the weather would cooperate, the sea be wavy enough for the concept to work, and the light be soft enough to give it a pictorial look without sharp patches of light and strong shades.

There were some challenges in positioning Luisa so that she wouldn’t be too uncomfortable (the operational word being “too”), avoid her scratching herself on the rocks, getting wet from the foam and so on, but in the end we pulled it of and Luisa didn’t complain once, unlike certain so-called “professionals”.

Also of note is that both this and the place where we shot A Great Wave are very public and relatively busy beaches (less so since covid, but there were still people here), so I also had to work around people a little, which fortunately I did without having to murder and then hide anyone in postproduction.

Visually, I used a slightly downward-facing perspective so either the sea or the rocks would fill the entire background. I also deliberately left just a hint of rocks at the very edge on top to give a sense of water flooding an enclosure of sorts, as opposed to open sea. I also gave a strong bluish wash to the highlights and a purplish one to the shadows so that the contrast between the sea and the rocks would be heightened.

On a side note, I’m particularly shady on this post because it offered me a direct contrast to that certain thing that happened three years ago, which affected even the photos that we did manage to take. There were setbacks to work around, there were difficulties and uncomfort to pull through, but we were all committed to the project (me, my model, and even my mother who was there to assist us) so we just did it, and we created yet another artwork we are all proud of!
And for that I’m forever thankful to my team. I can actually look at the lyrics of this song and sing them to Luisa for what she did here to help me restore my confidence in teamwork when the photos put us in less than pristinely smooth situations.

A Great Wave

“The Moon is shifting its shape.
I’m under a great wave.
All the sea bearing down on me,
This is where I would stay to breathe.

But your love,
But your love took me out of the water.
But your love, love,
But your love took me out of the water.

Though my veins show through,
Don’t let your blood give up.
There’s more to touching you,
There’s more to this than love.

But your love,
But your love took me out of the water.
But your love, love,
But your love took me out of the water.

Diving deep to the south bed,
Where the light gives up
All the pearls of the dead,
Were they worth more than us?

But your love,
But your love took me out of the water.
But your love, love,
But your love took me out of the water.”

[ A Great Wave – Phildel ]

First of all, a disclaimer: we now live in an age in which cultural sensitivity is finally becoming a thing. At long last, traditionally imperialistic white nations, especially Europeans and white Americans, are being brought to reckoning in regards to the imperialistic exploitation of other cultures (past and, unfortunately, present), and discussing cultural appropriation is an integral and pivotal part of this discourse.

In this context, I wish to clarify that the use of a cheongsam and a youzhisan in the styling of this photo is not meant as orientalistic or appropriative, but as a homage to Phildel’s ancestry, which is partly Chinese. We have a great deal of admiration for Phildel as an artist and as a person, as well as great respect for the Chinese culture that has contributed shaping Phildel’s musical identity and also our collective human heritage, and that’s what was in our minds when we styled this photo. I sincerely do hope we managed to include Chinese aesthetics into our work in a tasteful enough way that our intent has come across clearly.

 

That said, A Great Wave was another of the photos that put me in a bit of a pickle when it came to weather: summers in Alghero tend to have little wind, so we had to exploit that stroke-of-luck “bad” weather day to take this photo.

Conceptually, this is the second of the marine-themed songs, but it differentiates from Wild Sea in that the water, here, is a metaphor for something that’s outside of the protagonist’s inner world and, at that, even overwhelming, while the love of the listener shields them from harm. This is why it was the perfect photo to use the youzhisan, or oil-paper umbrella, as a shield between Luisa and the wave, a visual metaphor for the shielding love in the lyrics.

Aesthetically, I decided to draw a bridge between East Asian aesthetics and a touch of Italian Renaissance, with a big nod to Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus: I chose that location specifically because having someone modelling on top of that pillar would give the work a solemn, mythological, almost sculptural feel.

As for the photo itself, a good magician does not reveal their best trick, but it did take some work an effort to turn out the way it did. I’ll just leave it at that.

Once again, I’d like to reiterate that this work is not meant to be disrespectful, and I hope I did not step onto anybody’s sensitivities. On the contrary, I would like to take this opportunity to express my solidarity to the Chinese and Asian communities who have been facing violence and discrimination across many Western countries, including Italy, especially since the pandemic was misblamed on them. We collectively need to do better so that we can shape a future in which each of our individual cultures becomes part of humanity’s common heritage.

Glide Dog

“Heartbeats racing through my deep sleep,
Heavy as I go.
Skin don’t mean a thing,
Your skin don’t mean a thing, no.

I need more blood than you can pour, love,
More blood than you can pour, love.
I need more pain to remember your name,
More pain to remember your name.

Sharp teeth underneath my coat,
I’m hungry as it goes.
Shark teeth buried in your throat,
We keep it close.

‘Cause I need more blood than you can pour, love,
More blood than you can pour, love.
I need more pain to remember your name,
More pain to remember your name.
Yeah, I’m gonna need real hurt to give this real worth,
Real hurt to give this real worth.
I’m gonna need more blood than you can pour, love,
More blood than you can pour, love.

Cold to describe, I’m dripping in ice
When I glide dog,
Glide dog.

‘Cause I need more blood than you can pour, love,
More blood than you can pour, love.
I need more pain to remember your name,
More pain to remember your name.
Yeah, I’m gonna need real hurt to give this real worth,
Real hurt to give this real worth.
I’m gonna need more blood than you can pour, love,
More blood than you can pour, love.”

[ Glide Dog – Phildel ]

I honestly have no clue what the title of this song even means. Seriously, I’m in the dark. The lyrics, however, are very rich in imagery, and the melody and arrangement have a very distinct sensual undertone which I thought would be a perfect stepping stone for the photo.

 

Given her upbringing, Phildel is no stranger to violent imagery in her lyrics – I mean, look at The Wolf. This time, however, the song felt distinctly intimate and that’s the vibe I wanted my photo to have as well. One of my inspirations was Princess Margaret’s infamous 1959 birthday portrait (and also this later one from 1967) by Tony Armstrong Jones, the one with the dress pulled down so low it almost looks like a nude.

 

So fake nude from the shoulder up it is to conjure the sensuality of the song, and fake blood to evoke the violent imagery. As my theatrical blood is chilling in Trieste (and also running out), I had to make do with homemade one, for which I used blueberry juice as a dye and potato starch as a coagulant (though I might have to revise the formula).

A funny detail, I had my mother pour the “blood” on Luisa’s hand as I shot. The first few attempts didn’t have nearly enough of it to look good, so I kept saying I needed more and damn, did it all sound like the song lyrics in a genuine case of life imitating art (but for art’s sake)!

 

The real reason I went the sensual route with this song, unlike Electric Heights, was that I could easily pull it off with only Luisa modelling for it. I am demanding when I take photos, but I always prioritise my models’ comfort and boundaries, including my own, so I specifically devised this photo in a way that would not feel awkward for either of us.

It’s a lesson I think we all need to remember as artists: a work is always a collaborative effort, so we need to take everyone’s sensibilities into account. It’s a small sacrifice to pay, for when everybody’s at their ease the works produced become even better.

Emblem

“We’ve got the real thing,
Not the emblem,
Not the emblem.
I said those words, yeah,
And I meant them,
I meant them, ooh.

Give me the real thing,
Give me the real thing,
Not the emblem, ooh.
Empty envelopes when,
Empty envelopes when
I send them, ooh.

Keep your promises
And defend them,
Defend them.
Words and choruses,
You transcend them,
Transcend them, ooh.

Keep your diamond rings,
I don’t want anything.
Save your words and cards,
Don’t need paper hearts.

I said, I said
We’ve got the real thing,
We’ve got the real thing,
Not the emblem,
Not the emblem.
We’ve got the real thing,
We’ve got the real thing,
Not the emblem,
Not the emblem.”

[ Emblem – Phildel ]

Emblem is one of those songs that warranted a less-is-more approach: I decided to focus on the keyword in the title and one verse in particular – the second about defending one’s promises – to build the image around. I know in this context the “emblem” was probably meant as the pictorial representation of something as opposed to the actual object (i.e.: love), but I deviated from that to take into account the “coat of arms” meaning of the word and turn it into a shield of sort to evoke the idea of defending one’s promise. As a metaphorical shield I used my mother’s Russian enamel trays, which are very pictorial in decor, and also put one as a halo for good measure, because really, why not?

To contrast with the black trays and Luisa’s matching dark clothing I opted for a light background which ended up feeling a little empty, so I texturised with some old photos of white buildings in Trieste I had taken as backgrounds for a cosplay commission. I chose a part of Trieste’s city hall which was damaged by shells shot by the retreating nazi troops to symbolise that the conflict in the song is coming to an end and the main character is victorious and has saved what she was rooting for.

And yes, that’s pretty much the concept: I took some liberties but aimed again at strong visuals to make up for that.

Wild Sea

“Only I’m a wild sea,
Lonely till you leave me.

Speeding down a silent shore,
Something tells me I’ve been here before.
By heart, I know this dark.

Shapes turn to black,
I’d give you back.

Only I’m a wild sea,
Lonely till you hold me:
Love me like you do.
I know that I’m hard work,
You know I’ve been so hurt:
Love me like you do.
Yeah, I know you’re easy-going
Just to please me:
Love me like you do.
You know I’m a wild sea,
Lonely till you hold me:
Love me like you do.

Speeding down a silent shore,
Something tells me we’ve been here before.
Where we’re going I don’t wanna see,
Everyday you slip away from me.

I’d give you back,
I’d give you that.

Only I’m a wild sea,
Lonely till you hold me:
Love me like you do.
I know that I’m hard work,
You know I’ve been so hurt:
Love me like you do.
Yeah, I know you’re easy-going
Just to please me:
Love me like you do.
You know I’m a wild sea,
Lonely till you hold me:
Love me like you do.

You are my emblem of gold.
You won’t remember you told me.
You have a right not to know
How good it feels when you hold me.

Ships turning back,
They know I’m a wild sea.
I’ll be lonely till you leave me.

Only I’m a wild sea,
Lonely till you hold me:
Love me like you do.
I know that I’m hard work,
You know I’ve been so hurt:
Love me like you do.
Yeah, I know you’re easy-going
Just to please me:
Love me like you do.
You know I’m a wild sea,
Lonely till you hold me:
Love me like you do.”

[ Wild Sea – Phildel ]

Wild Sea is my favourite song from Wave Your Flags. It’s got some fierce competition, but I don’t know, something about it just clicked with me. And as it’s often the case, my favourite song from an album turns out to be the most difficult to adapt into a photo because I tend to raise my expectations about it.

In this case, though, there was a further problem: I imagined this photo with a murky sky, wavy sea and diffuse light, which aren’t exactly easy to come by in Sardinian summer. I kept the concept as vague and open as possible until basically a few days before Luisa’s arrival, all the while keeping a close eye on weather forecast to see if we’d get a chance to work with clouds. Turns out we did get a chance on the second day, which we promptly seized to also take Electric Heights and another one, so I could just go with my original concept without having to bend it out of shape.

A further challenge was Phildel writing three songs with marine metaphors, which meant I had to get creative to make each one different and individual enough. With this one, I decided to put emphasis on “I’m the wild sea” – i.e. the sea as a metaphor of the protagonist’s inner state: I gave Luisa the central spot in the photo, but also let the sea be prominent all around her. I also styled her with that blue lace dress to further emphasise the connection with the sea, and took advantage of any gust of wind that would shake her hair to make it all look more “wild” until I got the shot I wanted.

That’s basically it, I just run with the same metaphor as the lyrics, only making it visual. It’s also noteworthy that Luisa is modelling in the same location where someone else who shall not be named modelled when they came to Sardinia, except Luisa’s level of commitment to our projects and, thus, the final results were on a completely different level. Really, after getting burned so badly last time I was genuinely nervous about that, which is why I decided to exorcise it by shooting in the same location.