“I prefer to be an angel,Angelflanger always,
Always on the run.
Capture souls and dreams and voices,
Noisy voices, rumours,
Rumours made undone.
Collect diseases, hungry virus,
Virus, spirals, branches,
Branches round the past.
But I am joking, I’m a demon,
Angeldaemon begging,
Begging you to trust.
Get up, my head, get up, my…
I’ve always seen your eyes open.
Get up, my mind, get up, my…
I’ve never heard you’ve spoken,
I’ve always seen you broken.
So progressive, so involving,
Sky’s emerging tumors,
Tumours, waves and stars.
Captured beings all exhausted,
Sky’s a virgin, phantoms,
Phantoms, all of us.
Collect diseases, hungry virus,
Virus, spirals, branches,
Branches round the past.
But I am joking, I’m a demon,
Angeldaemon begging,
Begging you to trust.
Get up, my head, get up, my…
I’ve always seen your eyes open.
Get up, my mind, get up, my…
I’ve never heard you’ve spoken,
I’ve always seen you broken,
I just kill the ghosts you’ve woken.”
[ Angeldaemon – Leandra ]
New work from my Morphine series, specifically from the Metamorphine part. Angeldaemon is one of the first Leandra songs with which I emotionally connected back in 2008 and it even poured into the very first photoshoot I did with a reflex exactly seven years ago. When I decided to do a cohesive visual rendition of both Leandra’s albums, this was one of the first ideas to come to my mind: my dearest BriarRose looking all sweet an innocent with a little nod to some kind of inner darkness, which I represented by surrounding her with black feathers, as if she had just hidden (but not completely) some black wings of sort. Compared to many other photos from this series, this one is quite simple and only has a touch of surrealism in the general concept: after all, Angeldaemon is basically a piano ballad with very little electronica, so I wanted to keep the corresponding photo as basic as I could. While the general idea was already clear in my mind, a few details came up when we were about to shoot: for instance, I only thought of a white-ish, abstract background but, while discussing the location with BriarRose, I realised a bed would work nicely. Also, I just wanted her to wear natural make up and something white, which turned specifically into the shirt with nothing else while we were tumbling through her wardrobe.
Side note here: I do really love working with BriarRose, but lately I’ve kind of been feel guilty when I’ve had her pose as a temptress / seductress / force of darkness of sort. Of course, she is very feminine and has a natural kind of sensuality, but I think it’s unfair and reductive that she gets so often typecast only as that: she can do so much more. Choosing her for this photo was immediate and instinctive on my part – she simply appeared in the image I visualised in my head – but now I realise that’s because I really know her and how sweet, cute a person she can really be off the set. Now, of course in the photo’s narrative that’s only a charade, but I’m glad I could show there’s so much more about BriarRose than a temptress, for a change.
Side note here: I do really love working with BriarRose, but lately I’ve kind of been feel guilty when I’ve had her pose as a temptress / seductress / force of darkness of sort. Of course, she is very feminine and has a natural kind of sensuality, but I think it’s unfair and reductive that she gets so often typecast only as that: she can do so much more. Choosing her for this photo was immediate and instinctive on my part – she simply appeared in the image I visualised in my head – but now I realise that’s because I really know her and how sweet, cute a person she can really be off the set. Now, of course in the photo’s narrative that’s only a charade, but I’m glad I could show there’s so much more about BriarRose than a temptress, for a change.
