A KALTBLUT exclusive. Photography by Fagner Damasceno. Model is Wol Schein signed to Fun Models. Styling by Stella Michalski and Bela. “With my work, I always try to discuss the basis of situations that lead me to places of internal conflict. When an orchid goes into blooming, for example, it has undergone a series of inclemencies that led it to produce the unexpected as a way to perpetuate its essence. I believe that the methods of artistic production end up following a similar line.
A few days ago, I’ve passed through a church here in the city where I live in Brazil, while I was wearing headphones. Suddenly, a Rolling Stones track began to play and it was like an epiphany for me. “Sympathy for the Devil”, the song that played on my Spotify, tells a lot about gain and the incessant desire for power, no matter the methods applied to its conquest.
Nowadays in Brazil, we live a fierce political contest in which the false precepts of religiosity and Christianity intertwine with the ceaseless desire of society for the return of censorship as a way of curbing what they consider outside of morally acceptable standards. In this way we see a growing wave of domination of important seats within politics by religious entities that has brought with it a wave of retreat in the national scenario, which also includes Brazil in the world panorama that has reflected this return to more conservative policies.
I have never been much of a believer in religions, especially since they have always been the source of suffering at various historical moments, whether it was burning Joan of Arc, condemning and expelling Madonna from the Catolic Church by the pope or defining what women have to do with their wombs. On the day of these photos, there was a coat created by the designer and one of the stylists of this shooting, Stella Michalski, which described this process of degeneration and demonization of the human essence, with a human spine and a demon figure printed on a canvas. There was also a womb that I didn’t shoot because we probably needed a female model to carry that important message.This made me choose that church where I went as a location for this shooting because it represents the most real scenario where the conflicts in which I am inserted are present. A place where love and communion give way to hatred of diversity, free expression of gender and support for feminicide.” says Fagner about his editorial.
Photographer and Art Director: Fagner Damasceno / fagnerdamasceno.tumblr.com @fsdamasceno
Model : Wol Schein ( Fun Models )
Styling: Stella Michalski @stellamichalski / Bela
