Born of the Midnight Mist/I Awake
I’m lying in my bed at dawn, its freezing and I’m finding it hard to move. This is often my reflective time. The world is still and quiet and I have the luxury of time, if only a few warm moments.
I am at the end of a week that marks the beginning of this all-consuming new adventure I have embarked upon… I shot my first image in the series last week, but in reality, this image has been in creation for a few months now.
Four months into a pandemic and I’m already feeling quite reflective. At each twist and turn over the last few months I’ve been thinking about the idea that we are living history. These times will be taught to our children’s children in school.
During my first few weeks of lock down, I was kind of frozen. I knew that this was the perfect time to take on a project, to work on my photography, learn something new. I did a lot of yoga, learned Chinese characters every day and baked (badly). I couldn’t get anyone in the studio to shoot… I photographed cakes instead.
It took me a few weeks before I actually could figure out what to do with all the time and solitude I had been craving everyday in my busy life. During one of my daily neighbourhood walks with my dogs Poppy and Sesame, I began to grow an idea.
It was Autumn and the few deciduous trees around had begun to change. I wanted so badly to shoot a scene using those Autumn leaves and colours… Could I bring them inside? It wouldn’t matter anyway, the restrictions prevented me from getting a model. This idea reverberated round my head for weeks. Each time I left the house I would see leaves and flowers and branches. I began to visualise a beautiful dark garden where all these magical things could live. My house doesn’t have a garden to speak of. Could I build one inside? Who would be in the garden?
From here, the ideas began flowing thick and fast. I had a clear vision of a strange, delicate creature with white skin, sitting in the winter dark, blanketed in the midnight mist. Something beautiful and strange. Something unreal, unfamiliar, born from nature in this dark and mysterious garden. I made a trip to Spotlight and began to think about a dress and before I knew it I was cutting and sewing.
Over the next few months I sewed and cut out moths. Moths - the butterflies of the night…. I collected branches and leaves and began to build a forest in my lounge room.There were sticks in every corner of my house and car. I ordered a smoke machine and began to test it out at random times around the house.
We were incredibly fortunate in Australia and our lockdown restrictions were eased somewhat after about six weeks. I could now look for a model but was unsure how and who to ask. I was in essence, asking for someone to see my crazy vision. The model wouldn’t be given anything in return until the images were released and that could be years away. I had worked with Krysta before, doing TFP shoots - time for print - where the model and the photographer both give up their time in order for use of images. I messaged her and explained my idea. To my surprise, she was keen and excited! I showed her my ideas for hair and makeup and she offered to contact a makeup artist she had worked with before, Alice. Again, to my surprise, Alice was as excited to be involved as Krysta and we locked in a date. The week leading up to shoot day were a frenzy of cutting, sewing, sticking and building.
I woke shoot day morning before dawn and walked out onto my balcony to see the city shrouded in a heavy blanket of mist. Krysta arrived at 6:30 and we headed out to Morriset - a 40 minute drive, to Alice’s house for hair and makeup. Alice was so lovely - warm and welcoming and amazingly talented. She poured over my inspiration photos before begining a meticulous process that took almost three hours and resulted in something that I could only have dreamed of.
Bidding farewell to Alice, we drove back to my house and Krysta emerged from the bathroom in the gown. As she tiptoed into the lounge room forest I had built I stood speechless. Every part of my vision had been realised… and more. Krysta instantly slipped into the persona I had envisioned, sitting in the bed of autumn leaves. The light caught her face as she contorted her body into an otherworldy shape.
The Garden had come to life.
