All about this artistic production & the creative people behind it
A post apocalyptic story by >>
Photographer - Yoni Cholev Yoni Cholev (@yonicholev_photography) • Instagram photos and videos
Model & Stylist - Erika Suzuki Erika Suzuki (@erika____suzuki) • Instagram photos and videos
Shoes - Fugu Japanese Vegan Boots www.cooljapaneseshoes.com/shop
Jewelry - Linkedge www.linkedgejewelry.com
Clothing - Macchia Studio www.macchiastudio.com
Yoni :
"We imagined a story of a future planet earth. A planet that has gone through so much. A pale landscape, One almost dead lonely tree, and the character that is the survivor of it all. We wanted to tell a story of time, of our path, of the future and it’s movements from a pale landscape to its natural way to blossom"
Erika :
"The base of the styling for the entire shoot came from @fugu_shoes . I knew I wanted a post apocalyptic vibe which fugus shoes tend to bring, but I wanted to add a touch of traditional Asian influence and femininity so i contacted @macchia_studio for clothing, i knew this would contrast with the "metal mindfucks" of Rachel's jewelry @linkedgejewelry . The combination was bizarre and perfect and each look came out exactly how it was intended. All the contrasts worked harmoniously and stood out or blended in perfectly with the environment"
ABOUT ERIKA SUZUKI :
I'm Erika, Japanese by origin but born and raised in the UK. Glasgow Scotland is where I call my home!
I arrived to Israel three years ago with my partner, whom I met in Thailand 6 years ago. We chose the sun over the rain.
Modelling was never a world I intended to step into, in fact it came hand in hand with my lowest point of self-confidence I've felt in my life, due to my condition of alopecia being the worst it had ever gotten. I've had signs of alopecia since I was 2 years old and as I got older the condition kept fluctuating and I was constantly hiding behind it and feeling Increasingly insecure. "A woman without hair is not beautiful, it's not feminine, it's not right" I'd say to myself often as I went through high school, university and continued through the years of adulthood
Modelling has become a tool to not only empower myself throughout my journey to loving myself fully and honestly, but has also proven as a tool to help empower others that suffer the same hair loss condition as me too. It has been truly eye opening. I've learned from a young age, growing up as a Buddhist, that painful experiences in life help you to help others that go through the same experiences as you do. I won't say that it's easy or that I'm fully open with my baldness, but I am where I am in that journey right now, and that's enough and I accept that for myself and all I can do is love myself and hope to help others love themselves in the same way too by offering my support.
To support sustainable fashion is a very important thing for me to uphold. Not only for the environmental impacts fast fashion can have, and the humongous amount of waste it produces, but for ethical reasons of not wanting to support factory production and modern day, slave labor. I find it absolutely shocking that in this 21st century we still have modern day slavery and appalling child labor issues across the globe, due to people just wanting a cheap dress for their one night out on the town. Greed is a big problem in our society. Waste an even higher one. Slavery? It's hard to believe but we haven't passed this issue yet either in 2021. I do what I can. I'm not asking you to do the same, but to just think about it for a second, before you purchase something, where your money is truly going and if it is going to the people that are really doing the work or just the people sitting at the top
Money is your vote. What you choose to wear and represent on your body; the business and humans behind the businesses you choose to support, should be a conscious decision and one you make every time you purchase. well actually anything! I try my best to support small handmade businesses and sustainable businesses with my modelling too. This is why when I have the chance to style my own shoots, I'm always on the lookout for sustainable, handmade brands
ABOUT YONI CHOLEV :
photography for me is the place I can break through the usual boundaries
For many years I lived that lifestyle of a office job under a fluorescent lighting. I’m a non-extroverted person, a jeans & t-shirt kind of guy. I needed those years to understand my need of a artistic occupation
my subject of photo should be unique. Him or her should be inspiring and different. I love to connect to that person and to reach to their different angles. That is how I work, meaning, through the personality of the subject I start I start to create the concept
I love my “Fuji” camera. It’s a digital camera with all the abilities and still has that grip and feeling of a 80’s SRL. I also love it when people ask me if it’s vintage
Yoni :
"The connection with Erika came through Instagram. I took a look at her account and saw a lot of green. I loved how natural it felt. We connected and immediately there was a great chemistry. Erika was amazing! From one look to another it was visible how her held the character and the concept. From the body language to the energy of the color she was wearing"
Erika :
"Location scouting took some time but yoni was great with this. We wanted to go away from the green that was dominant in my feed and eventually we decided on this spot with the bare tree in the middle of the sand, that carried this post-apocalyptic vibe. Working with yoni was an absolute pleasure. He told me from the beginning how important my input was in this project and we saw eye to eye on the fact that a collaboration should be a true collaboration; each person having their artistic influence and ideas being a part of the Collab, and no one side being artistically dominant than the other. Yoni truly gave me the freedom to bring my ideas to the table, in fact he welcomed it. It was really a liberating experience and not one that comes around very often, so it truly allowed me to have the freedom of creation behind this project which allowed me to connect with it, love it, open up more to it and really feel the story that we were both trying to tell through our shared vision. It really felt like it was our production that we created together. I was not just appearing on the set to play a role that was in someone else's mind. My connection to this photoshoot had much more meat to it, so a lot of the poses came out completely naturally, spontaneously and honestly. I knew what I was bringing and so did yoni so it all very naturally fell into place, with a common vision in mind. Two visions merging as a balanced whole."
