Eve
I was nervous about this concept…at first. I wondered if I would go too far in getting a message across and if people wouldn’t relate or grasp what I was trying to say as a photographer. As a child I’d always seen the portrayal of “Eve” as a beautiful Caucasian woman so my imagination got the best of me and I decided to go against all the imagery I had previously seen in any biblical illustration.
I wanted to stay clean, within my style, conceptualizing elements that would add to my overall canvas. If Eve were a black woman, what would she look like? Would she be tall, short, skinny or fat? Would her hair be natural, straight, up or down? How would I show her creation, her temptation, her becoming more aware of herself and body?
To do this I put together a group of talented and visionary people in the industry that I felt would carry this concept like it was their own. Creative director, David Rolle pieced the looks together for Eve, orchestrating hair and makeup to follow.MUA, Mandisa Kerr worked her magic brush craftily added the right accents and contours to our models face. Hair stylist, Jameelah Thompson along with her assistant Lovena Magloire created amazing crowns of hair to place on our model that fit the theme.
As expected finding a model to play the role of Eve had its challenges. Because of the reptilian element, many models were skeptical about the representation or meaning behind a very recognizable prop. Selvinique Wright however was down the second I was finished explaining the concept to her. She was in and that was all. On set she moved her body and shaped her poses into works of soft and sultry sentences allowing David to form her into the character “Eve.”
Eidolon: The Alien Beauty
In ancient Greek literature, an eidolon (plural: eidola) (image, idol, double, apparition, phantom, ghost) is a spirit-image of a living or dead person; a shade or phantom look-alike of the human form. – Wikipedia
Combining efforts with a killer creative team, photographer Scharad Lightbourne explores a new concept titled “Eidolon” where he attempts to model Clarisse Pelanne into an unknown being. His inspirations coming from fantasy, extra terrestrial life theories and his love of sci-fi, he creates a unique twist on beauty photography. This alien-like beauty shoot is a conceptualization of that. Working along side MUA, Italia Williams of Eye Candy Makeup, Scharad attempts to bring you “Eidolon: We are not the same.”
The entire “alien beauty” concept came to mind literally overnight. But with weeks of research and multiple conversations and brainstorm session with the style team, these images came together beautifully. Initially showing an image to people, their first reaction was that the model appeared “unreal” however, they also commented that you were still able to see the beauty in them.