Pure beauty, for me, lies in the details on which light has fallen upon. It might be as small as the structure of a leaf, the fragmented light of blinded shutters over a woman’s silhouette, the twinkle in an eye, the reflection of a cloud in a window, the corner of a smile, a soft and loving sigh or as grand as a sky full of stars at a mediterranean sea horizon. Pure beauty has the power to bring me a moment of peace, as I pause in wonder.
Earnest, Baffled By The Light (2019)
Earnest: “Pure beauty has the power to bring me a moment of peace, as I pause in wonder.”
Yvonne Nusdorfer: “Perfect beauty is imperfection. Asymmetrical. Beauty that exudes confidence and is sexy. Where a little softness and love are hidden within.”
This is undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous videos we’ve seen so far about the lockdowns, as seen through the eyes of spoken word artist Kai-Isaiah Jamal and filmmaker Emily McDonald. With a cameo of ‘Please Believe These Days Will Pass’ by Mark Titchner.
“I have awoke into enough mornings of the same, to enough passing days to have gathered a hunger for change,” Kai-Isaiah Jamal says in the opening of “This Now”, an original poem and short film about our collective time in isolation. As the spoken word artist speaks, the visuals cycle through a compilation of self-shot mobile phone footage from over 40 people currently in self-isolation. We see open windows and peeking faces, walks through high-rise blocks and rural thickets, dinners by candlelight, empty London streets.
Across the poem, Kai reflects on our time in coronavirus quarantine, the lessons learned in valuing IRL connections and human touch, the moments of interconnectivity we’ve found, despite the world’s pain, distance and uncertainty, with the URL and close quarters. “This Now” is about what we took for granted and what we cherish, what we’ll shed in a post-pandemic life and what we’ll take into the future. With filmmaker Emily McDonald, the collaborators offer a hopeful message of unity despite the now, the political and social turbulence. When we emerge, there’s a fire for change: “Careless is a word I’m removing from my throat”.
Please watch, enjoy and get inspired.
First published on dazeddigital.com as part of their ‘Alone Together’ campaign.
Joeri Rouffa: “Beauty can be found in many different ways, I like to call this beauty. All this “minimalism” makes this high-end fashion image one of a kind.”
A photographer/artist who we admire a lot is Mert Alas, one half of the iconic duo Mert & Marcus. This March he already felt the need for an uplifting project that would take the minds of people away from all that anxiety, pain, loneliness and misery that the pandemic was (and still is) bringing. Alas asked his Instagram followers to send in their photographs for a unique project, ‘The Quarantine Days‘. The images were then given a high-fashion gloss thanks to Alas’s creative direction and photo editing skills.
Marc Jacobs & Mert Alas
The submissions far exceeded his expectations. “At first I doubted myself, I thought that there wouldn’t be many people or that it would mostly be selfies with nothing of substance, but I was shocked,” he says. “I love that there are mothers, nurses, lawyers, all submitting. People were DM-ing me to ask questions: ‘How do I light things better?’ ‘Is it better at this angle?’ It was truly surprising.”
Luis de Javier & Mert Alas
Mert received over 2000 submissions. Once the selection of the best images was made, Alas painstakingly edited each shot the way he would an editorial. “As an artist, you grow to be subconsciously selfish about your work—you’re only as good as your last picture,” he says. “This time, it wasn’t about me or my audience. I wanted to take an amateur photo and do as much to it, put as much love into it as I can. [Adjusting] the tones, the colours, the crop, adding new layers and just seeing what happens.”
Amber Valetta & Mert Alas
The results are gallery-worthy pictures brimming with emotion: masked figures standing before curtains, ballerinas taking to the backyard, and corseted beauties perched on balconies. Even with limited resources and restrictions on movement, Alas’s collaborators managed to deliver artistic flair. Naturally, some familiar faces made their way into the portfolio. Marc Jacobs, Mariacarla Boscono, Amber Valletta, and visual artists Jake and Dinos Chapman all feature, though Alas insists he judged the images based on merit, not star power. “I had a lot of model friends send me pictures, and I said, ‘Look, guys, I’m not going to use all of these because then it’s going to look like I’m doing a fashion story!’ ” he says. “Everyone’s input felt like support more than anything else; they understood what we’re doing.”
Kimani Worghs & Mert Alas
Intended to highlight the importance of having an artistic outlet in even the darkest times, the photos reflect the ingenuity and the escapist power of fashion photography. “It’s a little escape and it’s rewarding to create and be a part of a moment,” says Alas. “As artists, photographers, stylists and magazine [editors], we sell dreams and make money from those dreams. Now it’s our industry’s time to give back -and how do we do that? By doing what we do best—creating things and giving people hope.”
