When words just won’t suffice
The delight solidifies
Continues to take its toll
Weighs softly on her soul

Kate Lauren Harper has been envisioning this story for years. As a child, she would visit the library and immerse herself in books on dancing, captivated by the art form despite having no desire to become a dancer herself. She found it fascinating how dancers could convey so much with their bodies alone, without saying a single word.

While gathering references for this shoot, Harper was drawn to early photography of dancers, discovering numerous old, often anonymous images in university library databases. Around the same time, she penned a poem that accompanies the photos in this series, complementing the feeling she wanted the images to express. Another dimension that has always appealed to her in the world of dancing is the extravagant costumes and set design. She has always been drawn to vintage attire seen in historical photos of dancers and wanted this shoot to pay homage to that aesthetic.

When Harper approached photographer Volodia Kravchenko with her initial mood board, he was immediately intrigued. Her references transported him to a world he has always found intriguing—the 'belle époque', a time when people claimed to have photographed ghosts and capturing movement was a significant feat.

Photographers like Lartigue, who captured high society subjects in whimsical and ethereal moments during pre-WWI Europe, are a major source of inspiration for Kravchenko. This aesthetic was revisited in the 1970s by Deborah Turberville and again in the early work of Ellen von Unwerth in the 1990s. For Kravchenko, shooting something that references these eras is akin to creating and watching period dramas: connecting with the past, paying tribute to it, and reinventing it with today’s sensibilities in mind.

He observes that much of current fashion photography mimics the late 1990s and early 2000s, with many images appearing straight out of Fashion: Images de Mode. Against this backdrop, it was refreshing for him to explore something not currently trendy. In preparing, shooting, and editing this project, Kravchenko aimed to strike a balance between a contemporary feel and the ghostly elegance of yesteryear.

photographer VOLODIA KRAVCHENKO
stylist KATE KAUREN HARPER
talent HAILEY CERNEAZ (Priscilla's) and SOPHIA LARYEA (Vivien's)
make-up ALANA LUCKY
hair STEPHANIE DELL