After wrapping up Cultivation, I had a fun afternoon at Cathedral Park with my friend Kiki Nelson. She’s a photographer and when we both lived in Tucson she kept saying that she’d like to take some photos of me in my dance duds, but we never really got around to cementing plans and then she moved up here to Portland. So we decided we should finally set a date and do some pictures while I was up here, because Portland in October is pretty magical.
I threw a simple, Gothy costume into my bag for the trip — sparkly black skirt by Sakkara, sequin block print top by Magical Fashions, cool Moroccan belt I found at Buffalo Exchange, head piece by The Verdant Muse. I figured it would also serve me well if I suddenly had an opportunity to perform while I was up here, while keeping my Waking Persephone costume in reserve for that special performance.
Anyway, it was warm and summery on Sunday, but we still had some changing leaves and beautiful light to work with, and Cathedral Park had lots of cool spots that suggested different tableaux. We were far from the only people doing photos that day! Between Kiki, her husband Eric and I, we came up with some really good poses and ideas and spent a couple hours running around.
The black and white photos have a definite Film Noir feel thanks to the elegant lines of my skirt and the classic architecture of the St. John’s Bridge, whereas the color photos have a more faerie feel because of the light and trees and my red hair and the fact that I may or may not be a changeling switched at birth.
Kiki had not worked with photographing belly dancers before, but she does ecstatic dance and Goth dancing, and is just a generally cool Boho, Goth, body love warrior artistic soul with an incredible eye. Plus she’s seen enough of my photos and knows me well enough to know what kind of aesthetic I like in my pictures.
We’re already talking about doing more photos together once I live in Seattle. I’m excited about what we can come up with when I have the freedom to throw all kinds of things in my car, instead of just working with the costumes and makeup I could squeeze in my overpacked luggage for this trip. We made some magic within the constraints we had!
If you like Kiki’s work, you can either visit her blog and see about booking a shoot with her here in Portland (she does engagement pics and she’s great with babies and kids and did I mention that she’s super body positive?), or you can donate to her Catch the Light crowdfunding campaign, which she’s using to raise the money for some more professional photo equipment so that her hardware will keep up with her artistic ideas.