Our last week's challenge was 'feet' and our winner is Melina Nastazia Photography. She has been featured on our blog before (here), so this time we've asked her to share a bit about a personal project she has been working on.
Personal Project: A Creative Couple Series
When my daughters were born, I fell more deeply in love with photography: recording memories gained significance, there were continuous milestones to be captured, and every nuanced expression on my girls' faces was a source of inspiration. Most of my family lives a continent away, in Greece, and so photography became a way to share a part of our everyday with them.
When looking back on family albums, however, I noticed that my husband and I had very few together. With the exception of a few awkwardly composed cellphone selfies, our most recent couple images dated back to our Wedding in 2009.
Following this realization, I got the creative push that I needed when I took Emma Wood's amazing workshop: Timeless Photography and Emotive Expression. Justin and I both share a love for film noir, so we pored together over movie stills and scouted locations. Our acting background and love for theater took over as we discussed characters and wardrobe choices.
We took our first three film noir inspired couple pictures and an ongoing project was born:
After that, we decided to tackle characters from a play that deeply resonates with both of us: "A Streetcar Named Desire". In the movie this moment takes place at the bottom of a gorgeous spiral staircase illuminated by beautiful streetlights. We couldn't find a location that fully pleased us...so we decided to take a plunge and rely on simplicity and the power of imagination. We set up in our narrow Brooklyn apartment and used a doorway, a lamp and a ladder. It wasn't exactly what I had initially visualized, but I think I like it even more!
We now draw inspiration from anything and everything that moves us or sparks our interest--beautiful light, a song lyric, an intriguing album cover.
This last image was inspired by our mutual love and fascination with clowns. Justin was quite enamored by his clowning classes in graduate school. The character of Pierrot, a sad clown sitting on the moon, has always struck an emotional cord with me. There is something so vulnerable and romantic about the character: heartbreak rooted in acceptance--but with a longing that ignites hope! We thought these characters had something universal and relatable to offer so we wanted to tell the story. "Under the Circus Fog" for me is about a brief, somber moment of reality in the midst of putting on a show, cloaked by the surrounding fog. It is an exhausting job to constantly try to please everyone around you...or make them laugh!
This project has been a wonderful artistic and emotional outlet for both of us, as well as a creative bonding experience. I hope our girls will love to have these images of their parents to look back on someday!
Please find more of Melina's stunning work here:
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