Wedding & Portrait Photographer, Lancaster, PA | Gretchen Elaine Photography

View Original

"Just Like The Moon, I Go Through Phases"

"Just Like The Moon, I Go Through Phases" ~ When I saw this quote I knew it defined my latest self portrait series completely and it all made sense. This series is titled "Moon Child"

For this series of images, I had the idea of combining flower crowns with different makeup and glitter. I wanted to color coordinate everything from the makeup, to the crowns, to the outfits. I wanted to create different looks to make myself look like a totally different person. It probably sounds easy, but it was challenging to come up with different looks off the top of my head and then how to pose myself! I wanted to challenge myself further and use only myself since self portraits are in my opinion, not one of my strong suits.

So the main focus of the series is also about color and how to incorporate the main color in each look. I tried to use complimentary colors and colors within the same hue. I was able to create 5 unique looks with a color and glitter of their own.

Now the correlation between the series and the name, "Moon Child" is just like the quote said, just like to moon, I go through phases too. Each look could represent a mood or feeling. Happy, serene, wanderlust, serious, angry, confused, inspired, upset, intense. These are all feelings pretty much everyone has gone through. I can recognize these feelings and combinations of these feelings while looking at each portrait individually and as a whole.

I also noticed that the mood I was feeling that day when I created a look, reflected into the portraits and I look different in each one. It really made me analyze this series, it started off as something fun to do and turned into something that makes sense and that I hope others can relate to.

Whether or not you like this boho chic style, I am sure others can relate to the different moods that I have described and can probably choose an image here they are feeling right now. 

My challenge to you: Which one of these portraits do you relate to the most? Which is your favorite? Whether it's the styling or the mood / feeling, I am very curious what your thoughts are!

Gretchen Elaine Photography ~ 717.799.7077 ~ gehphotos@gmail.com