* *レイチェル クレイズ* *

There are very little things that give me good chills nowadays. And one of those things happens to be post-mortem photography; A practice that was once very common and socially normal in the US. Today, the thought of your deceased loved ones being physically handled to pose for pictures seems rather morbid and disrespectful.

I love old photography (amongst other old things like antiques) because the items or the subjects in the photographs are proof in my hands that these things once had a life, saw day to day in a whole different perspective. Almost as if the past is still alive in these things. It’s creepy and eery in a way as well as very compelling.

Which is why I was happy to pose again, with my good friend Rachie Tartz, for Sean Jenx for his most recent project, Memento Mori

If there is a god, it can be found through aesthetics. This higher power speaks through the artist and we are its scribe. I have always been fascinated with the idea of capturing the true essence within a photograph, the possibility of taking an element essential to life and breathing it into an aesthetic experience for the viewer. Inspiration for the imagery lies in Victorian post-mortem photographs and photographs capturing occult practice. The ability to capture essence has always been an alluring and haunting concept. To this day there are cultures with a reasonable fear of the camera and its inherent ability to lure the soul from its resting place with promise of permanence and bind it forever in silver nitrate. Throughout my life there has been a reoccurring theme and this is emulated through the work that I do. Each image is housed in resin, with its own sarcophagi containing a plaster death mask of the deceased. This series of images is a celebration of catharsis. Some of the most intense possibilities become reality in those final moments. I know that personally, I have always been fascinated with the human crux within a photograph, the possibility of taking an element essential to life and breathing it into an experience for the viewer. - S Jenx

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Diggin the fuck out of my ensemble today :P

Here it is! First image received from my shoot with RedRum Collaboration the other week! It looks so hot, I can’t wait to get the other image from this look, and the two from my other look!

Hair was done by Ryan Henaghan [total sweetheart with hair skills like woa!], and makeup was done by The Vanity who covered my eyes with more glitter than a 5 year old girls wet dream!

You can’t see the “Stormrider” hot pants I’m wearing, but that and the “Queen Bee” jacket were both made by an awesome designer team, IlanioWear. They stopped making stuff, sadly, to work on other projects. They made such cute and unique clothes. I’ve worn the hot pants in other shoots as well as to goth/industrial clubs a million times. I also have another awesome jacket by them which I have to wear in another shoot soon :)

The hair clip [from previous post], and what I call my “butt cape”, were both made by me. Hopefully in the other edit there will be a better view of the butt cape, but no doubt I will wear it again in other shoots. I just love how it looks :D

Anyhow, RedRum Collaboration is def my favorite photog[s] I’ve ever worked with. Not only are their services well worth their fee, but they’re friendly, fun and goofy and very professional and never disappoint! It’s no wonder their photography is amongst the most sought after :)

School has finally finished, which means I can start working on or continuing art projects I’ve been wanting to work on for months

I have ideas for paintings, which will be done in oil paints. A medium I have not tried before but am excited to :)

Also, in reference to the above photo, I mentioned this hair clip in a previous post about my shoot the other week. It’s a real bee nest, painted gold, small clock hands glued in [to give it an almost crown-like look] and covered with a layer of resin. Of course there are other things added to the clip, like strips of tulle

I plan on making more and selling them on Etsy. I’d make each one unique and different [painted other colors, etc]

I get these bee nests from my own back yard. Supply of them is kind of limited, obviously, and they’re always different sizes and shapes. I can make them into other things besides hair clips, if requested

What do you think? At my shoot, I was told by the other models that I should make more and sell them. So I’m seriously considering it :)

I shall begin sometime within the next week!

A candid photo of me at my shoot with RedRum Collaboration the other day, taken by my beautiful friend and MUA Ana X :)

I’m all sittin and gigglin. Dunno what was going on. It was a really fun shoot. It was my second time working with them, and I got to meet some people who were all very sweet and awesome :D

I know it’ll probably be a while before images are sent out, but I can’t wait!

In the photo, that was my second look. It was a queen bee type of dealio I had been planning for a while. I originally imagined I would be wearing my ballet heels and a knee length latex fishtail skirt that I have but sadly have never worn >:(
But it’s k, cuz I think what I ended up doing instead was much better :P

Ana kept saying I reminded her of the Venture Bros. And I can totally see that, Dr Mrs The Monarch, hahaha

You can kind of see a little golden thingie sitting on my head. That is a hair clip that I made a while ago. I have plans to make more and sell them. I’ll post a better photo of it and talk in detail about it at some point. Probably when the images come out lol