Sleep Now, Quiet Forest

“Sleep now,
The misty touch of green,
The leafy eaves,
The tender moss,
The trees,
The summer dusk gleams in gold.

You sleep now,
You sleep now,
You sleep now,
And rest.

You sleep now,
You sleep now,
You sleep now,
And rest.

Soft changing light,
New shadows
Under beams,
White flowers close
And wait for night.

You sleep now,
You sleep now,
You sleep now,
And rest.

You sleep now,
And rest.”

[ Sleep Now, Quiet Forest - Todesbonden ]

Badde Salighes, Sardinian for "valley of willows", is a very dear place to me. It was originally Welsh engineer Benjamin Piercy’s Sardinian estate, which featured a 19th Century mansion and an English-style garden, which was totally neglected after his death and eventually turned into an actual forest all around the mansion. When I was a child, my mother would drive me there for picnics, often with friends, and those are among my most beautiful memories of the time. This is one of the reasons why I absolutely wanted to shot there and chose it as the location for my Mother Earth photo.


Despite the whole place having shrunk in time (actually it was me who had grown twice as taller, but that was the perception I had) and the then-run-down mansion having been recently restored, it still kept its magic aura making it a real pleasure to shoot there. My mother and I had real fun experimenting with the kaleidoscope of different light conditions the dusky forest gave us, from warm setting sun rays to soft evenfall light, which gave the photos a wide range of moods. This was also the first time I worked with a tripod. I had just purchased mine and as by the end of the set twilight was settling and light decreasing, I had the perfect occasion for some practice. I could reduce the amount of ISO so that even a photo taken with such poor light as Mother Earth could be sharp and not grainy.

I'm still extremely fond of this photoshoot, both for the meaningfulness of such captions as Mother Earth and the Samhain series and because I could finally incorporate a beautful piece of my childhood into my art. This gave the photos a serene yet somehow nostalgic mood that touches me even after all these years.

Here are also the photos for which I modelled, all taken by my mother. You Made My Heart A Hunter and May You Not Rest were taken with the tripod, so my mother practiced with it too after all!

Samhain

“Vandrer ensom på ukjente stier,
Skumringen senker seg.
Roper, venter - stillheten tier,
Skumringen senker seg.

Vakker sang langt av lei,
Myr kledd slette I skogen.
Tåkeslor viser vei,
Myr kledd slette I skogen.

Allverdens I tåkedisen:
‘Kom søster, kom med oss.’
Kaldt, kaldt I kvelds brisen;
‘Kom søster, kom med oss.’

Alvekongen tar meg I favn,
Høye trør kaster skygge.
Glemt er mitt menneske savn,
Høye trør kaster skygge.”

[ Vandring - The 3rd And The Mortal ]

“A frail figure dressed in a cape
Wandering with measured steps,
Haunted by derisive words.

They want to capture the ogress
Wandering aimlessly
Finding pebbles on the ground.
Picking leaves from from an oaktree,
Stalks make rents in green sails.
‘Have some candy’, she says.”

[ Harvest - The 3rd And The Mortal ]

“Dans la forêt, si noire que la nuit peut être respirée...

Through the lucid eyes of witches you’ll see
The things that man can’t see anymore:
That the origin of life still lives in every tree
And in the witchcraft lies the source of all the lore.

Praise the seasons, praise the night.
These witches teach me how to see.
This initiation enlarged my sight:
Now I found the witch in me.”

[ The Witch In Me - Autumn ]

Disclaimer: I may guess perhaps these are not the colours most of you associate with Samhain, but in Mediterranean Italy weather is rather warm until the beginning of November, so by Samhain woods are still green.

I still hold this series particularly dear even after years. I think this was my first serious attempt to tell a story through a sequence of photographs, even though there isn’t an actual plot and it’s more like a series of “stolen moments” of a witch celebrating Samhain in a shrine in the woods. Looking back, I don’t know if the narration works so well, as I feel there is some sort of gap between the first and second photo, but it’s a nice experiment nevertheless.

I really love the overall mood of this series. I think it’s best showcased by the second photo and the related song: sad and lonely. It’s an intimate, solitary celebration in a small and poor shine held by a lonely aging witch. No big bonfires, no dances: just a spare offer to the forest spirits, all she could gather, given quickly and secretly before dusk so nobody will notice. I don’t really know why she’s alone and sad: maybe she’s the last surviving member of her coven and celebrating reminds her of her lost sisters, and she’s held in contempt by her fellow villagers because of her “weird” habits so she’s better not to drag attention to her small ritual. Still, I think she’s not a bitter or resentful woman, she’s just melancholic and kind of sweet. She still hears the calling of the nature’s spirits and wants to honour them, but everything got kind of sad for her.

(Ok, great, I’ve kind of realised I created a character that’s a mystery even for me.)

Each of these three photos is somehow special to me for different reasons: Vandring, despite being the least successful of the three (and also the odd one out), has that motion of the skirt which I really love; Harvest is very sad, I can’t quite describe either the sensation I get from the song, those I had while shoting or those I get while looking at it; finally, in The Witch In Me my mother looks simply stunning, her eyes look so ancient, like bearing all the wisdom in the world, like a real Witch.

I have to say that much of the “magic” comes not only from the location and my mother’s modelling, but also from her outfit. She brought that lace shawl along just in case, and it ended up being what made the difference, the perfect completion to her expressivity.

I’m glad that the reissue of this series proved successful, as I just find it special and am glad it could reach more people than it did years ago. I just feel a bit silly because I feel my heart swell and my eyes a bit teary whenever I look at it.

Yeah, I know I’m weird.

Mother Earth

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

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

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

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

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

[ Mother Earth - Within Temptation ]

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