Some things are better left unsaid

Image Description: Photo of a makeup brush being suspended against a black background, tied in the style of a shibari knot, made of jute material. 2019.

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Throwback to one of my favourite photos. I taught myself a simple #shibari knot 20 minutes before we shot on set that day, done with jute twine—which is not an easy material to present neatly by the way. Earlier this year, our client had initially been on board with my concept, until later I told him the inspiration behind it. He then retracted saying it was too risky and inappropriate for their brand and we had to reshoot.

FYI, the art of Shibari is a well respected craft; objectively, simple knots suspending products wouldn’t necessarily scream what a quick Google search would tell you. I was simply drawing inspiration. The client didn’t know what it was until I told him the name of the practice—I guess for some, it’s difficult to remove perverseness out of things.

There’s more to why I went in this direction but I’ll spare details; all I’m saying is they missed out and I got a pretty photo out of it.

Photo + lighting by the talented Tishan Baldeo. Art Direction by yours truly.

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