Death

‘Death and the Maide’ by Henri Lévy, and ‘The angel of death’ by Emile Jean Horace Vernet were two of the most prominent influences over this shoot titles conceptualisation. As typical of the renaissance era, Death is personified as a male figure in my stills. The Hebrew translated scripture, Psalm 23:4 - ‘though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil’, surrounds deaths halo, visually enforcing the characterisation of death as a biblical angel sent by God rather than an evil ‘’satanic’’ entity. The intent behind these images being, to visually capture the sombre reality of the definitive conclusion death is to an individual's life, in a dramatic, theatrical style. When researching, I noticed there were a number of paintings from the renaissance which romanticised maidens’ interreacting with ‘Death’. An example of this being depictions of the two characters, death and the maiden, dancing or laying together. Instead of introducing a dance element to this shoot, I chose to pose the two characters (death and the maiden) in single and duel editorial portraits with an opera-like aesthetic/atmosphere. The woman in this shoot is dying/dead, yet she manages to emit a peaceful essence which intentionally juxtaposes the life filled young lady from the Adolescence shoot, who in spite of being the image of youthfulness, embodies the face of tragedy and despair. The two shoots (Adolescence and Death) were made in consideration of each other. Significant details were used to symbolise differences between life and death through the narratives and portrayals of the characters, their allegorical definitions and the colour palettes of, the two shoots. Creative director, stylist, set designer and editor – Noreen M H Photography – Eleanor Bartltop Models - Noreen M H and Samuel Ogunleye