24/12/2024
Red Doom
“A few years ago I was a neuroscience researcher at Columbia University where I studied color vision. Our lab was interested in how brain cells take information about light hitting the retina and transform it into hue-specific signals.
In contrast to the vibrant nature of the research, my lab days were deeply sterile and isolating. Each day I prepped animals for brain imaging and then spent hours in the experimental rooms recording neuronal responses to light. These rooms are, by design, devoid of any ambient light, sound, and temperature/humidity controlled. My world had gotten dark and quiet, and as I endeavored to elucidate the inner workings of the brain, I was also spending long hours navigating the depths of my own sensory-deprived mind.
I was in my mid 20’s when I left Manhattan, my job of three years, and quit lab work entirely a couple years later. I found my way into a different world where I got to experiment with light and color and this time bring the wholeness of my person and my interests with me. I started to photograph fashion. I continue to play with chemistry, creating colorful fires, glowing liquids and otherworldly materials for my photoshoots. Lucky for me the intersection of fashion and science is so harmonic.
On this photoshoot I collaborated with the artist and sculptor, Elise Jonke, and photographed her with her “Doom Chair”. The chair has such an intense and uniform hue, like the simplified experimental stimuli I showed animals so many days in the lab. The red radiates outward and obscures the many details Elise built into the chair, each of which is personal and evocative. Elise and I co-styled the shoot with references from Dilara Findikoglu’s S2019 collection, WE11DONE S24, Renaissance oil paintings, and Betsy Johnson’s Valentines Dismay shoot for Re-Edition.” -
Photo:
Model & Sculpt & Set Des: .jonke
Styled by Elise Jonke and Maia Saavedra-Weisenhaus