“Decode the half forgotten memoriesReverberating distantly.
Some have moments that they can’t subdue,
Some take part in the electric blue.
Look away, look away...
He watched the lines and the curvature
And traced her silhouette.
She stayed the moment with a glimpse and a frown.
She took the fates by surprise.
She was the model for the end of days.
Some have moments that they can’t subdue,
Some take part in the electric blue.
Look away, look away...
Look away, look away...
These are the days now,
This season will change us.
Be someone, trust no one,
Vicious circle, never ending.
These are the days now,
This season will change us.
This breakdown, disruption,
Ease the pain now, please start ending.
Disarrayed and renewed,
And everything’s electric blue.
Polarised and dismayed,
When everything else is just untrue.
Disarrayed and renewed,
And everything’s electric blue.
Polarised and dismayed,
When everything else is just untrue.
And everything’s electric blue,
Everything else is just untrue.
Everything is electric blue,
Everything is untrue.”
[ Illusions – Theatre of Tragedy ]
For some reasons not even I can quite understand, in my mind there is some sort of bond between Hollow, Frozen and Illusions, which are three songs on Theatre of Tragedy’s majestic album, Forever Is The World. So, I decided to do matching works about those songs with assembled photographs, because they kept giving me lots of images but none of them did represent the song as a whole. The idea is to make up images looking like a glossy magazine editorial with fashion portraits and a waterolour-looking title.
To be honest, I could have shot this one any time in the past months – indeed, I shot the ceiling of the top left photo like ages ago aptly for this project. But I absolutely wanted BriarRose to be in it and I needed Milan Central Station as the location, which isn’t exactly the best of matches because she hates that station and admittedly it’s not the best of places for a woman to wear fancy clothes in. The wait paid off, though, because meanwhile she sew herself this amazing dress for a Hunger Games cosplay, which was perfect for the photos. The funny thing is, I wanted it but it was her who suggested we could use it for this shoot in the first place. Yay for sibling telepathy!
Another good reason for waiting is the song is not very straight-forward when it comes to its meaning and, out of the three, it gave me the hardest time to figure out what to do. When I went to Norway in April I had the chance to have a long nice talk with Nell Sigland and discuss pretty much all the Theatre of Tragedy songs which she contributed writing, including this one. This helped me refine the general idea and confirm which parts I wanted to develop visually. I decided to cover the lines of the lyrics I feel were most emotional or visually striking: the silhouette (which is why I needed this particular location: those huge windows!), looking away (Nell’s voice gives me shivers on those lines) and, of course, the electric blue, which was also a working title for the song at some point. I also had quite some luck, because while I had planned all along to construct a geometrical composition with each photo pointing to the next, there was no way I could possibly have BriarRose look exactly at the central point of the next photo, but amazingly, she did.
The next and final work from this series will be Frozen, and it will have to wait until God knows when because I will need to find myself in a certain place with, ah ah ah, snow. Which would be easier done than said if I lived in some fancy Northern country, but alas, Italy is what we get. We won’t be talking about it before next winter anyways.
Meanwhile, enjoy Illusions, possibly while listening to the related song meanwhile!
To be honest, I could have shot this one any time in the past months – indeed, I shot the ceiling of the top left photo like ages ago aptly for this project. But I absolutely wanted BriarRose to be in it and I needed Milan Central Station as the location, which isn’t exactly the best of matches because she hates that station and admittedly it’s not the best of places for a woman to wear fancy clothes in. The wait paid off, though, because meanwhile she sew herself this amazing dress for a Hunger Games cosplay, which was perfect for the photos. The funny thing is, I wanted it but it was her who suggested we could use it for this shoot in the first place. Yay for sibling telepathy!
Another good reason for waiting is the song is not very straight-forward when it comes to its meaning and, out of the three, it gave me the hardest time to figure out what to do. When I went to Norway in April I had the chance to have a long nice talk with Nell Sigland and discuss pretty much all the Theatre of Tragedy songs which she contributed writing, including this one. This helped me refine the general idea and confirm which parts I wanted to develop visually. I decided to cover the lines of the lyrics I feel were most emotional or visually striking: the silhouette (which is why I needed this particular location: those huge windows!), looking away (Nell’s voice gives me shivers on those lines) and, of course, the electric blue, which was also a working title for the song at some point. I also had quite some luck, because while I had planned all along to construct a geometrical composition with each photo pointing to the next, there was no way I could possibly have BriarRose look exactly at the central point of the next photo, but amazingly, she did.
The next and final work from this series will be Frozen, and it will have to wait until God knows when because I will need to find myself in a certain place with, ah ah ah, snow. Which would be easier done than said if I lived in some fancy Northern country, but alas, Italy is what we get. We won’t be talking about it before next winter anyways.
Meanwhile, enjoy Illusions, possibly while listening to the related song meanwhile!
