philotes.freya X SambaRanthony
Mother Nature is strong, care-free, rebellious and will abide by the schedule she chooses for the sake of her children. She’s suffered for them not realizing their love heals her. I stand with Mother Nature for she represents time and nurture. I stand with the mothers because aside from them, who else has taught you to care? Who else will teach you to love?
Sarah Rose and I connected through a photography group on Facebook. Honestly, Facebook collaborations bring about a lot of uncertainty. You can never tell who is committed to the shoot until it has taken place. You can spend ages planning and have nothing come of it.
Initially, when I reached out to Sarah, to discuss the project, I had not yet had the chance to check out her Instagram account. Once we moved our conversation to Instagram, I was reassured. It was tiled with vulnerable yet authoritative images and empowering messages geared towards uplifting women. This shoot was not introducing anything foreign or odd as she was already channelling the central theme of the shoot through her modelling. We spoke of goddesses, nature and energies and the best ways to showcase this. Thankfully for us, it worked out.
Although we loved the concept, I had no real plan about what I wanted to do with the images. Having the images for my portfolio was good enough for me.
But, as fate would have it, I was having a conversation with the multi-talented, Ola Mazzuca from Sonic Fold who mentioned an awesome project she was working on.
Throughout February and March, she had been sourcing artwork for The CommUNITY Cultivation Collection - a collection she was guest curating which would be featured on Make Room Inc. | The Space Project – a collection celebrating Women’s History Month.
Make Room Inc, an organization that provides a cost-free way for artists to display their work in galleries, has been on my radar for several years. Having followed MakeRoom Inc for some time, I've always intended to be a part of their exhibit but never made anything I deemed worthy enough to share on this platform. But here was Ola with a call for submission I couldn't pass up.
“ A soul left untouched is pure and at one with Mother Nature. But as we grow as people, we’re taught early to place our trust instead in a social structure that contradicts “the natural”.
By diminishing this sacred relationship, we’ve attempted to strip Mother Nature of her true essence by commodifying every part of her being, consequently diluting the magic found in our own personal and spiritual conversations.
Being stripped of this time leaves us with fewer moments to love and to nurture. But Mother Nature doesn’t care for the human interpretation of time since she’s been on the same mission since the beginning.
Mother Nature is strong, carefree, rebellious and will abide by the schedule she chooses for the sake of her children. She’s suffered for them not realizing their love heals her. I stand with Mother Nature for she represents time and nurture. I stand with the mothers because aside from them, who else has taught you to care? Who else will teach you to love? “
Did I mention The CommUNITY Cultivation Collection comes with a dope playlist?
Check it out
The intention behind the project was simply to create but I never really thought about finding avenues to showcase the work. Fighting against old habits, I submitted my work. I’m glad I did! Is this the next step in my artistic evolution? To share without care? Who knows. Transcending the ego is easier said than done.
Special thanks to Sarah for being a part of the vision and Ola of Sonic Fold and the crew at Make Room Inc. for giving me an outlet to share this work with a larger audience. Although I forget far too often, it was a great reminder that art is meant to be shared.