Ella Rose Muse: the story

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Morgan & Ellis Creative Experience Day: "How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being." Oscar Wilde*

I was asked to model for a Morgan and Ellis Creative Experience Day back in July, which meant I was the model (alongside the lovely Salleh Sparrow) for Scott Morgan and Ellie Ellis' tuition day at a beautiful manor in Bristol. I had often seen images from these two, and though their styles are distinctive, they are both beautiful, creative and interesting, so I was very much looking forward to meeting them. It was a really good day, with some stunning shots taken by the group attending. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and come away really inspired, so as a quick plug, here's a link to find out more if you're a photographer who might be interested in going along to such a day: http://www.morganandellis.co.uk/experience/.

I've kindly been sent some images to show off here. There's going to be a mixed bag below (and yes, I'm posting a LOT), jumping around between different locations and back again, as I'll list them by photographers rather than set (I'm sorry, it's just quicker for me!). The lovely ethereal white floaty thing I'm wearing in some was provided for me, designed by Sian Whitefoot. The make up was by Gemma Louise Williams. Big thanks to everyone involved!

Enjoy!

By Scott Morgan:

By Denny Wong:

(Thanks Scott... ;-) )

By Emma-Jane Lewis:

* The above image was posted on facebook with the Oscar Wilde quote I stole for this blog post title. In case you were wondering... :-)

By Viktoria Kuti:

By Clayton Jane:

By Stephen Maitland:

By Zoltan Sandor Nagi:

Friday, 13 September 2013

Monbachtal

Another blog post in quick succession, but I'm keen to show off some images from another session in Germany, working with the excellent Steven Billups in the Baden-Wurttemberg area.

These were all taken on film, so we took relatively few compared to the average photoshoot (digital shoots can results in hundreds and hundreds of images), and there are so many that came out beautifully, we think. I love the tones and shapes and textures in these, and the water's caught really well (not always the easiest thing, capturing moving water). There's always such a sense of uncertainty with film - it's not like digital where you can look at the back of the camera for reassurance - you have to trust you're doing the best job you can (both the photographer and model), so maybe there's something extra valuable about the feeling of getting it right!

Congratulations to Steven for selling quite a few prints recently of a shot we did last year, too!

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Fee Tree

Well, Italy was amazing. Utterly Italy-ish. Rolling orange hills, chickens, a LOT of granita (Sicilian Spirit, lemon, mint, peach...), grapes plucked from vineyards, Botticelli and Titian - I can't get enough of wandering around in wonder at the talent, myth and stories in the Uffizi Gallery. And Michaelangelo's David (in the Accademia) really is a sight to behold (is it weird to fancy a sculpture? Hmm). I really must go to Italy again as soon as possible.

In other news, I am now gearing up for my trip to Vietnam, Australia, Japan and Bali. I leave in a couple of weeks! So much to organise it's insane. It will be an amazing trip. Email me at ellarosemuse@live.co.uk for details!

Anyway, update time, and the following shots were taken in the south of Germany a couple of months ago. I stayed with Peter Gruener and worked with different photographers over two days for this part of the trip (I've included links on the first instance of each photographer being credited). We had a good time, despite heat and mosquitos, and I really love some of the images below. Thanks photographers!

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Walter De La Mare, 'The Listeners'

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses

Of the forest’s ferny floor:

And a bird flew up out of the turret,

Above the Traveller’s head:

And he smote upon the door again a second time;

‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplexed and still.

But only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,

That goes down to the empty hall,

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken

By the lonely Traveller’s call.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

’Neath the starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:—

‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,

That I kept my word,’ he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house

From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,

And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,

When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Natasha Khan/Bat for Lashes, 'Horse and I'

Got woken in the night,
by a mystic golden light.
My head soaked in river water.
I had been dressed in a coat of armor. They called
a horse out of the woodland.
"Take her there, through the desert shores."
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear.
You're the chosen one, there's no turning back now."

The smell of redwood giants.
The banquet for the shadows.
Horse and I, we're dancers in the dark.
Came upon the headdress.
It was gilded, dark and golden.
The children sang.
I was so afraid I took it to my head and prayed.
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear. You're the chosen one, there's no turning back."
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear. You're the chosen one, there's no turning back."

Mark Doty, 'A Display of Mackerel'

They lie in parallel rows,

on ice, head to tail,

each a foot of luminosity

barred with black bands,

which divide the scales’

radiant sections

like seams of lead

in a Tiffany window.

Iridescent, watery

prismatics: think abalone,

the wildly rainbowed

mirror of a soapbubble sphere,

think sun on gasoline.

Splendor, and splendor,

and not a one in any way

distinguished from the other

—nothing about them

of individuality. Instead

they’re all exact expressions

of the one soul,

each a perfect fulfilment

of heaven’s template,

mackerel essence. As if,

after a lifetime arriving

at this enameling, the jeweler’s

made uncountable examples,

each as intricate

in its oily fabulation

as the one before

Suppose we could iridesce,

like these, and lose ourselves

entirely in the universe

of shimmer—would you want

to be yourself only,

unduplicatable, doomed

to be lost? They’d prefer,

plainly, to be flashing participants,

multitudinous. Even now

they seem to be bolting

forward, heedless of stasis.

They don’t care they’re dead

and nearly frozen,

just as, presumably,

they didn’t care that they were living:

all, all for all,

the rainbowed school

and its acres of brilliant classrooms,

in which no verb is singular,

or every one is. How happy they seem,

even on ice, to be together, selfless,

which is the price of gleaming.

Kate Clanchy, 'Poem for a Man with No Sense of Smell'

This is simply to inform you:

that the thickest line in the kink of my hand
smells like the feel of an old school desk,
the deep carved names worn sleek with sweat;

that beneath the spray of my expensive scent
my armpits sound a bass note strong
as the boom of a palm on a kettle drum;

that the wet flush of my fear is sharp
as the taste of an iron pipe, midwinter,
on a child's hot tongue; and that sometimes,

in a breeze, the delicate hairs on the nape
of my neck, just where you might bend
your head, might hesitate and brush your lips,

hold a scent frail and precise as a fleet
of tiny origami ships, just setting out to sea.

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