Balkans warrior woman

This was a rather complex idea that I wanted to do for a while. I think it turned out great. The stylist and the generous owner of the clothes is Orsolya, the amazing model who portrayed Judith in the "Judith with the head of Holofernes" project. Her task was to select items from her collection of mostly antique garments that would fit the late 19th - early 20th century Balkans context, without creating an actually consistent ensemble. Since she's a very well-versed collector and researcher of ethnographic garments, she could've assembled several sets that could've been identified - not merely by ethnicity, but down to the specific village. Her and me agreed completely that it's NOT something we'd want for a variety of reasons. The amazing photographer was Aczel, as for the vast majority of my current projects. His task wasn't trivial either - he was also in charge for background and "scatter" props, while aiming to recreate the vibe of portraiture from the period (though obviously without the excessive varnishing). As always, he did a terrific job. Arcuentu, the model was somewhat inexperienced, which makes her performance even more impressive. I think she was pretty much perfect for this role and she channeled her forebears very well. Also, not to skip over this either - I still really like both the bichaq and the karabela-hilted shamshir. It's rather rare for me to actually really like something I made.

Participants