Dulce Periculum: Mellow 8/35

Dulce Periculum: Mellow 8/35

As you can easily see from the title of the series, we are in Italy. In ancient Rome, to be precise. I never had Latin at school, but Dulce Periculum fitted in well as a title for this series for me. It means sweet temptation.

Reading time: 3 Min.

After all, Nausicaa Yami originally comes from the patisserie industry and has switched her career during the pandemic. She is now a successful model who has worked with all the top photographers. Her career is impressive. But I'll be doing a separate interview with her and introducing her to you in more detail.

Rome

My pictures always live from the location. Maybe that's saying too much. What I mean is that the location always plays a role in my photos.

Location with my styling

And when I saw these enchanting windows, I absolutely had to ask for permission to take photos there. As always, the model and I met for the first time at the shoot. We both traveled to Rome. Especially for this shoot.

That involves a certain amount of risk. But I was more than satisfied and that's why I decided to take the cover photo from this shoot.

I like to ask models about their superpowers when I work with them. Some of them have special qualities, such as being able to do the splits from a standing position. And so Nausicaa Yami told me that she can do a bridge.

The artistically crafted window ornament with its intricate leaded glass not only serves as an aesthetic highlight but also harks back to an era when such masterpieces were considered status symbols.
Behind the scenes

The arch in the yellow part of the window, the old and beautiful table. My motif was born immediately. And in retrospect, I'm a little surprised myself that I immediately felt the analogy between orange windows and the fruit and bought two of these tropical fruits from the supermarket outside the door for my shoot.

A sweater and dungarees were also a must. I simply wanted to revive this retro vibe. I am already looking forward to working with Nausicaa Yami again.

Nausicaa Yami eating an orange

Nausicaa Yami had to wait a whole two years before our pictures were finally published. That is now unimaginable for the vast majority of models. Everything is posted live (on instagram), there are no more waiting times. It was very challenging for me because the models often wrote to me asking when the book would finally be published or were even afraid that the pictures hadn't turned out well enough.

Secrecy was very important to me. I don't think it makes sense to publish a book whose pictures were to be seen in advance. The element of surprise is very important to me, so that you can really celebrate the photos. I haven't shown around 90% of the photos in my book to anyone beforehand. Not even the models.

In hindsight, I'm a bit annoyed that I didn't record a lot more making-of sequences. But that's just not me. I'm not a person who documents their entire life. I soak up these experiences and store up memories. So I can't show a picture now, but I can describe that the key to the apartment in Rome was about 20 cm long. A very old key for a very old door.

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