PHOTOGRAPHY & EDIT ALMA ROSAZ - MAKEUP, COLLAGES & WORDS EMILIE LOUIZIDES - TALENT KINGH AT MODELS1
Over the past couple months, I’ve been venturing out into our post-lockdown world, collecting paper materials along the way, some that I found, others that were given to me. Information and picture booklets were handed out on day trips to Kew Gardens and the Natural History Museum. Others were sitting in stands in grocery stores, markets and shops with stickers on the front that said ‘Free!’. I celebrated my birthday and loved the wrapping paper my family used for my gifts, so I saved it.
Accumulating paper materials is something I’ve always done because, either in the back or front of my mind, I’m always thinking about making collages; it’s something I’ve done since I was very young, I’ve studied the practice formally, and I try to weave it into my work as a makeup artist where and when I can. Too much time had gone by since I last combined collage and makeup, so I collected materials intentionally, with a specific end goal in mind. Once I gathered what I felt was enough, I made six original collages. The process flowed naturally and the scenes that emerged were literally quite natural themselves. Each collage is a little world that has plants or animals present within it, reflecting what I’ve been seeing, doing, and experiencing out in the wider world.
A human has been placed in these collage worlds, making each feel more real and inhabitable. The creative boundary was further pushed by adding makeup, but beauty really was the end goal all along. The creative, artistic, and homemade aspects of the collages are supported by makeup looks that possess the same energy. Inspiration was drawn from sketchy and painterly brush strokes, stamping techniques, bedazzling, found objects and materials, and bright colours. I never expected that the result would feel so personal; it’s as if I’m sharing interpretations of places that I’d ordinarily inhabit in my mind. So, welcome to my own little world.
